Near
by Platonic
Summary: Coping with the loss of Sonic, Amy reminds Shadow of himself. While Knuckles is also accepting, or rejecting, comfort. But there's more than just emotional hurt. Shadamy, Knuxrouge
1. Chapter 1

(A/N) Got a chance to post yet another story. Three things you should know. This is set around the time of Christmas, the cast is about 3 years older, and I live in Florida. I have never truly seen snow. Well on T.V., but I don't think that counts. All I know is it's cold and wet. So, don't get mad that I forget to mention everyone's wearing winter gear, I'm in shorts still. Oh, and Ryuu is a dark colored Hedgehog(Grey with black strips) wears a black jacket(Because it's cold) and is about 21. Make up the rest with your mind.

Disclaimer: I own not Sonic, Amy, Shadow, or any other SEGA Character. Just Ryuu. He's mine. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The room was dimly lit by the warm glow of a Christmas tree. The entire apartment was filled with the smell of burning cinnamon candles and carols of Silent Night from the radio.

Amy sat next to her tree and watched the decorations glisten and spin on their hooks. A small sigh escaped her lips along with a tear down her cheek. There was nothing different about her Christmas wish this year. She always wanted Sonic to be with her, especially this time of year. But this holiday was going to be different, Sonic was dead this year, and he was never coming back.

She had tried to keep hope that her loved one would make it home to her, but it was apparent now that Sonic was never to return to her.

Amy brought her knees up to her body on the sofa and sobbed into them bitterly. She could still remember the events that took him away from her. The failed attempts of all her friends, Sonic risking it all to save the planet he loved, the words of comfort that were vainly made.

* * *

Snow was falling heavily limiting visibility to almost nothing. The cries of friends hallowing for help or partnership in this confusing moment was all that could be heard. 

"Sonic! Sonic!"

The entire team had been separated fighting a new rival Ryuu. Ryuu seemed to come from nowhere, and had brought Eggman to a place of submission. The entirety of Eggman's bases, weapons, and inventions were now at the full command of Ryuu. To add to the burden, Eggman was ever constantly supplying Ryuu with more equipment.

"Sonic! Answer me!"

Ryuu was a hedgehog of another kind. He was relentless and lived to his word. Unlike Eggman, and even Shadow in tactics, Ryuu killed anyone who posed a threat to his mission. Sonic was just that, a threat that needed to be dealt with.

Ryuu had set Sonic and his friends up. Ryuu had the whole battle planed. From the snow storm's arrival, to Sonic's down fall, he was three steps ahead and had the full advantage.

Half beaten and almost ready to give up, Knuckles had finally defeated the machines sent against him. Knuckles had seen Sonic being lead further way from the others during the fight before the weather had become strong. Unfortunately, with problems of his own, he was unable to give aid to the blue blur. And now with the storm bearing down so hard, it would be almost impossible to find Sonic or the others. Them being Amy, Tails, Rouge, and Shadow.

All of them were facing challenges of their own. Ryuu's attacks and machines were even a hand full for Shadow to handle. Thinking of this only discouraged Knuckles. Ryuu had personally taken Sonic on.

"I'm gonna find you Sonic, just hold on."

Just then something came into focus up ahead. A blueish heap in the snow.

"Sonic!" Knuckles ran up beside the fallen hero who laid motionless on the ground. "Sonic, wake up." Knuckles shook Sonic's lifeless body to receive no response.

"He's dead."

Knuckles looked up to see a blurred image of Ryuu. The smile across his face built up a rage in Knuckles.

"I'm gonna kill you!" The words were almost unintelligible through his clenched teeth. The Echidna rose to his feet and gave his all as he ran for Ryuu, fists extended. The smile never removed its self as Ryuu quickly jumped the approaching blow and pulled a syringe from his quills. Without a moment of hesitation Knuckles turned to face his opponent only to receive a sharp driving pain...

Waking the echidna from a nights sleep.

"Sonic!" Knuckles breathed heavily as he sat up next to the master emerald. Knuckles gripped his offended side were a bruise was left from the battle only four weeks ago. He could remember waking up only to see that Sonic had been removed by Ryuu. What was he thinking? He could have taken Sonic to help. No, he had to let his temper, once again, get the best of him.

Trying to shake the recurring memory, Knuckles laid back down only to see Rouge peering back down at him from atop the emerald.

"Gaw, What Are You Doing Here!" Yet another start to the heart.

"It's Christmas eve, thought I'd pay you a visit," The bat replied, "Unless your really up for fighting over the emerald again." Rouge slid down the side of the gem and stood over Knuckles. Taking notice to his slight discomfort being under her, Rouge lowered herself to sit next to him.

Knuckles made no eye contact with her, just stared off in to space. Rouge watched him for a while before following his gaze. The night sky was brilliantly lit by the stars, and being the island's weather conditions were controlled by the master emerald, the island stayed relatively warm year round.

"Think their going to change any time soon?" Rouge said in vain to try and brake the silence. Looking back over at Knuckles she took note that his eyes were glazing over. He was thinking of Sonic no doubt, and how he let Ryuu slip through his fingers. Rouge turned her attention up to the stars again. She didn't really know how to relate to him in this situation.

Rouge wasn't close to Sonic, and though his death was shocking, it didn't affect her as much as it did the others. Still, it was hard to watch them struggle with the fact that Sonic was dead.

"You know Knuckles, it wasn't your fault."

Knuckles simply rolled to his side so not to look at her, or her on him. Yet a tear leaked from his tightly shut eyes, hopefully unnoticed. Rouge keep her focus on the stars, acting as if he never made a move. "Non of us saw it coming. Ryuu was planning our fall and is still doing so."

Despite her attempt, Rouge was only angering the guardian further. He wanted to be alone. He felt it was his fault, and nothing she was going to say would change that fact in his heart.

"Why don't you just leave now," Knuckles replied flatly rasing to face her. All traces of anguish now replaced by a forced anger. "You've well worn out your welcome."

Turning down her eras, Rouge stood for take off. Knuckles watched as she made a hasty flight from the island. A small feeling of remorse come over Knuckles at this moment.

"Idiot." He breathed softly viewing Rouge's outline disappear into the night sky. Knuckles mentally slapped himself. It would be a while before he could cox himself back to sleep, and her company would have been much appreciated. It wasn't truly anyones fault that Ryuu had killed Sonic, but it was just so hard to accept that he was never coming back.

Trying to hide weak emotions and retain a calm composer only took its toll on the troubled echidna. Letting only his anger show wasn't going to bring Sonic back or change the events of that day. It would only end up ruining other opportunities for friendship, or more, in his life.

Knuckles laid back down and tried to let sleep over take him once more.

* * *

Snow continued to fall over the main land, Station Square. Shadow had spent the last four weeks walking the streets aimlessly. Sonic's death, Amy's tears, it all reminded him of Maria. 

Shadow stopped outside of one of the department store windows. The toy store had closed for the night, for all Christmas shopping had been completed. Shadow gazed at his reflection a moment.

"Maria."

This had been Maria's favorite time of year. And though he did not get much out of it, he loved watching her happy face and figure dance about on Christmas eve.

"Come on Shadow," Maria smiled warmly placing a few wrapped gift before her friend. "Tomorrow's Christmas!"

"Indeed," Shadow watched as the girl wrote the names of several scientists close to her on the boxes.

"I made something special for Micah this year."

Micah was Maria's favorite person aboard the Ark. He was very kind to her, and often brought her gifts from his journey to Earth for internship. He had even helped her get an Earth bought present for her grandfather. "I want you to see it before I wrap it." Maria rose to her feet and went to her dresser. Shadow positioned himself on the girl's bed as she brought before him a small box. The hedgehog's curiosity perked up a bit when Maria began to open it.

Inside was a perfectly cut piece of glass in the shape of a rose. Each petal was tipped with a pail red and curved to natural perfection. Shadow smiled. He could tell Maria had a slight crush on the young Micah, and this was truly a perfect gift for him.

"It's nice."

Maria grinned from ear to ear.

"I sure hope so," Maria took the box back to her dresser for save keeping. "Grandfather helped me make it in the lab while he was away." Shadow chuckled. "What are you laughing at?" Quite entertained in his thoughts,

"When are you two going to marry?"

"Stop it Shadow!" Maria quickly grabbed a pillow from the end of the bed and started what surly would be the pillow fight of the year.

"Her pointless games were always best." Shadow sighed and embarked on yet another trip down memory lane.

Sonic was not his concern, nor was his love sick stalker. Yet watching Amy's pain stricken face when she heard the news was more the Shadow wanted to take.

Ryuu had designed a creature just for Shadow, a mechanical beast holding the power of three chaos emeralds and a data based filled with Shadow's information. The monster knew all his attacks and abilities. Still, Shadow had reduced it to only a useless heap. But this battle couldn't prepare him for the worst.

Through the rage of the storm, Shadow simply stayed low. This storm would soon pass, and he could hopefully team up with the others.

It was now apparent what Ryuu had done, Shadow only wished he had seen it sooner. Ryuu was separating them through the fight to weaken them. Plus the conditions of the storm would add to the heros down fall.

Shadow watched for what seemed like countless hours as the storm lightened up. Once he could see clear enough to understand his surroundings, Shadow began searching for the others. The first he came upon was Amy. She was fighting way more than she could handle. Each machine had cat-like qualities and faster reflexes than Amy.

Using chaos spear, Shadow rapidly destroyed the mechanical devices. The two stuck together as they came to Tails and Rouge finishing off the last of their attackers.

"The Tornado's damaged," Tails hollered over the sound of the wind. "We'll have to look for Sonic and Knuckles from the ground."

Shadow didn't waste time. He knew the others could tend to themselves now that they had each other. He dashed off through the snow, skimming the landscape for signs of the high speed hedgehog or the guardian.

"Stupid of us not to fight together." Shadow mumbled to himself as he slowed his pace. Ryuu had probably left his mark on Sonic, but surly the blue blur had stopped Ryuu. Or at least scared him in battle.

Suddenly, something red caught his eye.

"Knuckles?" Shadow took a sharp turn sending snow out behind him. Kneeling next to the echidna, Shadow could see the brand left by the syringe. Keeping an eye open for the offender, Shadow gently shook the echidna. About this time Amy, Tails, and Rouge came onto the scene to see Shadow checking for vital signs.

"What happened!" Rouge came along side Shadow.

"He's been poisoned, but I don't know by what."

Amy joined the two by their fallen comrade.

"Is he going to be alright?"

"He has a pulse."

"Maybe we should take him to a doctor?" Tails also joined the group.

"What about Sonic?" Amy protested looking about for her beloved.

Knuckles winched a bit in pain as he began to regain consciousness. As his vision came into focus, Knuckles was surprised to see everyone.

"Where's Sonic?" He gestured to the place where Sonic had been laying.

"What do you mean?"

Knuckles then did as best he could to explain what happened. Shadow watched as Amy broke down into tears unable to handle the news. Tails, too, had a difficult time accepting this fact. Could Sonic honestly be dead?

"NO!" Amy's cry could have been heard for miles. "Where did they go!" Amy dropped in front of Knuckles.

"I told you Amy, I don't know."

Tails fell to his knees and sob softly denying the truth to himself. Amy joined him only a bit more vocal.

"I refuse to believe he's dead, Ryuu's trying to fool us."

Shadow felt a slight sting of pain remembering falling from the Ark. How he wished he could deny the fact, but it just...it was so.

His tears brought him from his thoughts. Whipping them away, Shadow continued his walk of the planet. His mind vaguely on Amy. She had keep her hopes up for so long, and to this day hadn't admitted to believing in his death.

Shadow turned to look back on the road he had traveled earlier.

"Amy."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N) Look, it's a few days after Christmas. Oh well. Happy New Year!

Disclaimer: Sega Sonic Team, Go them.

Amy rose from her fetal potion on the sofa. Wiping away tears that had become too common to her face, Amy made her way to turn off the radio that now offended her ears. The carefree songs only seemed to mock her, taunt her with love and happy holidays.

Switching off the music filled the room with a deafening silence. It all reminded her of last year. Sonic had visited, and they shared a semi-romantic evening. They watched _It's a Wonderful Life, _and took gifts to the hospital for underprivileged children. Silent Night had been playing in the hospital that evening.

Small droplets of water rained down on the side table and radio as Amy began to cry openly.

"Please Sonic," Amy raised her head toward heaven, "There's nothing else I want in all this world!"

Amy's head lowered once more as she continued to sob.

From her balcony window, Shadow watched her through the curtain. She had finally lost all hope. Sonic wasn't coming back, and she knew it.

Emotionlessly, Shadow stared in at her as she went to blow out the candles. In a way, Shadow felt like he could relate to Amy. He knew what it felt like to lose someone special.

"Maria," The moment was close to the same, and yet more relieving. Amy was able to let this dark emotion out. He, even to this day, had kept his feelings locked away inside. He had no friends to run to, no one to confide his feelings in, and no desire to do so. Noone needed to know how he felt about Maria. They had accepted him as an aid to their battles, and that he had come to peace about Maria's death. That wasn't true, however. He was still unable to mourn her, unable to completely let the feelings out.

Everything he knew and loved was taken away in an instant. Yet he still had to carry on orders for his creator, and the wishes of Maria. That was his mourning Doing what he could to please them. It wouldn't bring her back, but it would make her happy, right?

Shadow looked down at the streets below him. Vehicles muddling through the snow, and serval individuals late getting home. Why was he holding his pain inside? Was it because he was afraid of weakness? No, because he knew tears and helplessness were as far from each other as the east is from the west. So why did he let himself suffer?

"I did what you wanted, didn't I?" A small wave of anger came over him. "So why can't I have peace!"

Small white flakes then entered Shadow's vision. Shadow turned to gaze up at the night sky. More snow clouds had moved in to cover Station Square with a few more inches of snow before Christmas. Shadow's attention was brought back to Amy, however, when he heard something in the apartment crash.

Without the candles' light, the room had become much darker. Amy had bumped into the coffee table on her way to the bedroom. One of her candy dishes had fallen off, braking the lid on the bowl.

"Stupid dish." Amy whispered, wanting to cry over being clumsy as well as in pain. Amy, trying to avoid the mess, reached over the sofa to switch on a lamp when she caught a glimpse of the window. Was that Sonic outside?

"Sonic?" Amy quickly got to her feet and made hast for the balcony. There were no words to describe her happiness. Sonic had returned! Everything was going to be okay!

Amy ran around the table and flung open the glass separating her from her beloved. "Ha Sonic!"

Amy was surprised when she ran to meet only the railing. "Sonic?" Had he fallen? Amy gripped the rail and looked down at the grounds below. "Sonic! Where are you!"

Amy pulled herself up letting a few tears fall down her cheeks. "Sonic!" She did a complete 360 to try and see the cobalt hedgehog. Was he playing some kind of trick with? "Sonic please, I want to see you." He never answered her.

"Sonic," Amy sighed when she realized she was only seeing things. He wasn't there, he was never going to be there. "Good night, Sonic, wherever you are." Amy closed her window and headed for bed.

Shadow dropped down from the balcony above hers and watched her disappear inside.

Perhaps she hadn't given up all hope. She still believed he would one day return, no matter how long it would take. Shadow took one of the chaos emeralds in his hand and left Amy's for the night. There was nothing more he needed, or wanted, to see.

Christmas day. The morning for most children had taken forever to get here. But it was now upon the apartment building of Amy Rose. Amy woke about seven to the sound of knocking on her door.

"Who in their right mind comes on Christmas morning?" Amy groaned not wanting to face this day. However, she pulled herself from the bed and opened her bedroom door.

"Be there in a minute." She called and waited for a response. After a moment of silence, Amy decided to shrug off the knock as just one on the neighbors bumping the wall. She turned to get back in bed when the knock came again. Okay, there was someone at the door.

Amy went to her closet and put her house coat on over her silk night gown. She advanced to the front door. "Hello, who is it?" Still, no answer. This was a little awkward for Christmas morning.

Amy got to the door and placed her eye to the peek hole. All she could see was black, the person had covered the door hole. This scared Amy. Why was this person doing this?

Suddenly, Amy could hear the snickering of a young child from the other side of the door. A smile found its way onto Amy's face as she opened the door. Before her stood Cream and Cheese and her mother, Vanilla.

"Merry Christmas, Amy!" Cream cheered with Cheese. Relived, Amy ushered the small family in with warm greetings and a thankful heart it wasn't some maniac at the door. "Me and my mother brought you a gift." Cream was so excited. "You have to open it!"

"Calm down, Cream." Vanilla beamed at her daughters felicity.

"Please make yourself at home. I just need to get dressed and I'll be right out to join you." Amy readied herself in a warm attire and brushed her quills back. The hedgehog shared a Christmas breakfast with the rabbits and opened the gift given to her. It was a glass fringe necklacecolored pink, lavender, and purple. "Thank you so much." Amy hugged her friends.

"Your welcome Amy." With that, Vanilla started to clean the dishes left from breakfast. Cream and Cheese sat with Amy on the floor a little longer.

"Let me help you put it on Amy." Cream was very lighthearted this morning. Amy could imagine her last Christmas. Sonic was always so bright and lively this time of year. Amy lowered her head suffering as the young girl put on the necklace.

Cream could tell Amy was a bit upset, most likely because Sonic was gone. She missed Sonic as well, and was still hoping that he might come backsomehow.

"Um, Amy?"

"Yeah Cream."

"Do you miss Sonic?"

Cream's question reminded Amy of how she felt last night, and it momentarily blanked that cheerful morning out of existence. Amy shook the memory off and answered.

"I know he's okay Cream, and he's gonna come back." Amy seemed so confident in her answer that Cream smiled back.

"I'm sure he will."

"Come on Cream." Vanilla said, entering the living room, "We'd better head on home." Amy waved at the three as they left her apartment. Amy stood still a moment, now alone again. She would have to face the feelings and memories of Sonic again. No distractions. Amy sat on the sofa next to the tree and again began to daydream.

"A smile better suits you." Shadow said as he watched her.

Christmas day on the island.

Knuckles sighed. The morning had come without a night of sleep for the restless echidna. Making the glorious sunrise only an agitation to him. Knuckles sat in front of the master emerald and gazed out over his island. A perfect paradise, lush with fruit and beautiful plants. There where breath taking water falls and natural hot springs by Mt. Thunder. Hundreds of wonders, both natural and made by his tribe. The ideal living conditions, and noone to share it with.

Though he'd never admit, he often got lonely on the island. And with Sonic's resent death, it would only insure he'd stay that way. Without Sonic's foolish, yet heroic, actions, Eggman, and defiantly Ryuu, would be after the emerald. He would have to be there to protect it, and thus never go with Sonic on another adventure. Tell the truth, he'd miss a whole lot more about Sonic.

Knuckles couldn't help but feel partially responsible for Sonic's death. Had he gotten Ryuu, or agreed to fight with Sonic instead of alone, maybe this never would have happened. It was so obvious that Ryuu was separating the group, how could he not see it.

He couldn't live in regret. This was Ryuu's fault not his. The hedgehog was the one who should be suffering, not him, or Tails and Amy. Sonic had only done what any moral person would do. He was trying to help people.

From the moment Ryuu had appeared in their lives, he was nothing but a threat to freedom and an aid to the already excising problem, Eggman. The black and gray stripped hedgehog was seen on board of one of Eggman's flying vehicles. He was standing, arms folded, laughing down at the group of heros fighting off Eggman's robot army. Every mechanical monster spraying fire like ice at their opponent.

"Fight all you want," Ryuu mocked watching with delight as the fighters abilities were being recorded. The cameras were in plain sight, why hadn't Knuckles notice them before. Ryuu had the entire battle that day mapped out like a planned vacation to Florida. He knew their moves, there weaknesses. He and Sonic never saw that the robots were made to fall apart. It was all just a set up for the day Ryuu would kill Sonic. Ryuu had even seemed to fool Eggman into giving him complete power of his armies. It would only be a matter of time before Eggman, too, will be dealt with.

Knuckles tried to shake the memory along with the guilt.

"It wasn't my fault," Knuckles got to his feet, "I did what I could." Pacing around the emerald, his breathing got heavier. Ryuu was bond to launch another attack. Next time he might take more than one person, or do away with them all. Adding to this, noone knew why Ryuu was doing this. Did he also want world domination, or was there something else he was after?

Knuckles placed a hand on the Master Emerald and looked over his island again.

"Maybe a walk will clear my thoughts." Jumping down from the alter, Knuckles headed for Hanging Gardens. He knew its tranquil surroundings would ease his nerves.

The walk was in general quiet peaceful. It had been a while since the guardian had visited the garden. Upon arrival Knuckles took full advantage of the small creek in the center of the lush greenery. Cupping his hands, Knuckles drank the fresh water til he felt content. Finishing, he decided to continue his mental and physical refreshing by taking a swim. The water was soothing, passing through his fur to wash over his skin.

Sighing in relief, Knuckles floated onto his back closing his eyes. The horrifying nightmare was rinsed away and replaced by the sounds of lapping waves, singing birds, and the smell of ripe fruits. After a few moments, however, Knuckles began to feel a bit uneasy. Opening his eyes, he couldn't tell anything was wrong. Yet, knowing better than to let a gut feeling go un-humored, Knuckles left the waters. Just as he did so, the sounds of nature seemed to stop, or at least silence a bit.

"Someone's on my island."

Knuckles ran with all his might back to the Master Emerald. His little stroll had take the better half of a day. Whoever was on the island could have been there for hours with out him knowing. Again, a foolish move for a guardian. _Leaving the Master Emerald all day, Great one Knuckles._

The alter was only a little ways ahead, but something foreign caught his eye. Someone, or something, had shot past him a few feet away. Knuckles halted his run, and turned to face the passer by. It was gone. Whatever it was wasn't going to get far. Checking over his shoulder to insure the Master Emerald's safety, Knuckles chased after the intruder.

After serval moments of not seeing height nor hair of the strange objects, the idea of it being a trap entered the echidna's mind.

"Dang it." If it was Ryuu, he defiantly would pull something like this. Ryuu was probably already at the Master Emerald.

Knuckles started to change direction when something grabbed him from behind. It had him around the middle and was breathing lightly on the back of his neck. If Ryuu was planning to stick him with another syringe, he had another thing coming.

Without a moments hesitation, Knuckles elbowed the person, turned, and rammed them into a near by tree. He had a firm grip on Ryuu's arms and was about to lay on a decent pounding when realization hit him.

"Rouge!" Knuckles had just successfully pinned the bat. "What are you doing back here!"

"You think yelling at me scares me off. You've done it a thousand times, time to try something new."

Angered by her remark, Knuckles tightened his grip on her.

"Leave! Now!"

"Yeah, When I Can Feel My Arms!"

Finally taking notice of how he was holding her, Knuckles let Rouge go. "Thanks,"

"The sarcasm isn't needed."

"Well, neither are the red marks." Rouge rubbed the afflicted areas.

"I didn't hurt you that much."

"There's more than one way to hurt a woman."

Knuckles raised an eye brow. "That doesn't make any sense."

"Really?" _And Lo and behold, Knuckles still doesn't get it. Big shocker there._

Her questioning was odd. Rouge always seemed to be talking in circles. She had appeared to play games with his mind and poke fun at his confusion.

Rouge than advanced on Knuckles. "Why are you so dead set on getting me off 'your' island?" Knuckles stepped back causing Rouge to stop coming forward. "Oh please, you can't honestly think I solely exist to chase down that stupid rock."

Knuckles turned from Rouge and started back for the master emerald. This day was stressful enough without having to put up with her.

"Is this your idea for getting rid of me?" Rouge mocked playfully. Knuckles didn't react to her statement and continued on. "The silent treatment is pretty unoriginal, don't you think?" Still, the echidna didn't respond. "Come on, Knuckles," Rouge said to herself, "I couldn't give you a bigger signal if I were running around in my bikini with pom-poms screaming, 'Come Get Me."

Rouge quickly extended her wings and flew off. Knuckles glanced back at the sound of her leaving. Knuckles utter a sigh, "At least I don't have to worry about her stealing the emerald now."

All Knuckles could seem to think about was Sonic's death the entire walk back to the alter. What could have been done differently that day in battle? Was Sonic's death quick and painless?

Knuckles parted the bushes leading to the alter and stepped through. He lowered his head as he took the steps up to the gem.

"Thought you'd feel better after walking here,"

Looking up, Rouge could be seen landing on top of the Master Emerald. "But I guess your still upset."

"Get Away From..." He was cut off.

"You Don't Gotta Yell, I know what you want." Rouge slid down behind the emerald out of Knuckles' sight. _Why must she be here?_ Knuckles quicky rounded the gem stone.

"Then Why don't you just leave it alone!" She wasn't there, however, when he reached the other side.

Just like before, Rouge grabbed Knuckles from behind.

"Now that wouldn't be much fun, would it?"

Knuckles pried her arms from around his waist and turned to face her.

"Will you stop with these stupid games?"

"And let boredom consume you like a fire?"

"Please, just leave it alone."

It wasn't to hard to tell when Knuckles was being serious, and if ever he was, it was now. Rouge knew he was still disturbed by Sonic's death and was having trouble adjusting. She could also tell he was blaming himself for not catching Ryuu, or at least getting Sonic's body.

Knuckles went back to the steps of the alter and sat, motionless, waiting for her to leave.

"Knuckles," He grunted as she moved in next to him. "I was there, too." He looked at her.

"And the point your trying to make?"

"I didn't save his life either."

Knuckles looked away.

"Yeah, well you weren't fighting Ryuu face to face."

Rouge paused for a moment trying to find a proper response.

"Well at least you can say you tried to help Sonic, the rest of us can't." Rouge rose to leave. For some reason, Knuckles didn't want her to go. Not that he felt her advise was good or anything. _Of course not. _Just for company, and someone to share this feeling with. Before she took off Knuckles reached up and took her arm.

"How do you feel about it?" No explanation was needed. Rouge knew what Knuckles meant.

"I wasn't that close to Sonic," Rouge took a seat next to Knuckles as he let her go. "I was bothered by it. You know, the hero of Mobius dying, kinda makes a person scared. And sometimes I wonder what would happen if Ryuu attacked us again. Or what if someone else had died in Sonic's place." Both their eyes meet causing Knuckles to look away. Rouge also diverted her eyes to the scenery. "Still can't catch a clue, Knucklhead."

Knuckles smile at the reference used. Sonic called him that all the time as an insult.

"What are you trying to imply? You think I wouldn't have been able to take down Ryuu?"

"With your quick thinking, its amazing you take anything down."

"Thanks"

"Sarcasm isn't needed."


	3. Chapter 3

(A/N) I added a bit more to this chapter. There's a little _O_ where I added. Please read. I'm free from school, however, so updates should be faster. Yeah...

Shadow had spent the entire day and Christmas night out on Amy's balcony. He couldn't seem to draw himself away. Too deep in thought about Maria, too hurt and confused not to sympathize with Amy.

Maria had everything set up for Christmas. She had gotten all her gifts into a bag and had Shadow hold the cards so they wouldn't get messed up. At six she was up leaving presents on every scientists' work station.

"Come on Shadow your slowing everything up."

Shadow raced after her placing her cards on top of every gift. Dodging equipment Maria ran through the Ark delivering her surprises seven minutes before the first research shift started. Not a single person was missed. Maria even got small treats and candies for the other experiments aboard the space station. Everything was running smoothly, until she got to Micah's work space. Maria reached into her bag only to find Micah's gift wasn't there.

"Shadow,"

The panic of Maria voice caught the black hedgehog's attention immediately. "I left Micah's gift on my dresser and he'll start work in a few minutes."

"Don't worry I'll get it." Shadow placed the few cards he had left to deliver in the empty bag Maria held. Without a moments hesitation, Shadow was gone half way to Maria's chamber.

Entering the hallway to the living quarters, Shadow slowed his pace. Not only did Maria live in this wing, but so did her grandfather, which Shadow had learned never to wake before due time. Shadow easily found the present wrapped on the dresser and slipped back out into the hallway.

The light was on in Gerald's room and the door slightly ajar.

"Great." Shadow tried to lighten his steps as he approached the door. He just had to get past, then it was a clear shot to Micah's desk. No need to rush, he still had three whole minutes. No sweat, all was good.

Shadow could now see slightly into the room. He could also hear Gerald holding a conversation with someone. Perhaps he wouldn't even notice Shadow. Becoming parallel with the room, however, Micah came into vision. Shadow was surprised to see him talking with his creator so early. Dismissing it, the hedgehog was about to completely pass the door and be on his way to completing the mission when something caught his ear.

"I have to quit the research, sir."

Those words stopped him in his tracks. Placing himself on the outside wall, Shadow decided to continue listening to the conversation.

"That seems to be a rather hasty decision Micah, your internship is not yet complete, and project Shadow is still underway." Gerald could be heard saying.

"I know, but I'm sure someone else can pick up on my research." Micah could be heard picking up a suitcase or hand bag of some kind. Still, Shadow stayed put to listen.

"Besides, Kayla wants to get married in Europe and I want to be with her there."

"Your only Twenty-Two what's six more months of working on Shadow?"

"Sorry sir, I'm leaving on the first shift train. Thank you for everything, and tell Maria I said good bye."

The door then flung wide open and both Gerald and Micah stood before the confused hedgehog.

"Shadow, what are you doing here!"

Shadow stared up at his master, both hurt and confused.

"Shadow?"

Shaken from his thoughts, Amy was standing over him. The sun had also risen and the day had started without him. Shadow had been sitting there all morning; it being about nine now.

"What are you doing here?" The female hedgehog repeated upon Shadow's silences. She was about to lecture on his trespassing when she noticed his eyes were glazed over as if he had been crying. Feeling a bit of guilt for just yelling at him, Amy knelt down to his level. Shadow looked away.

It was unlike Shadow to behave like this. Sitting out in the cold all night, crying on top of that.

"Why don't you come inside and I'll make you something to eat. Would that be..." Before she could finish Shadow rose to his feet, all emotion gone from his face.

"Thank you but that won't be needed." Shadow reached for the chaos emerald in his quills.

"Are you sure." Amy was concerned. Even if Shadow wasn't a close friend, he was a friend non the less.

"Yes." The answer came out harsher than Shadow had intended it to.

"Okay." Amy timidly turned to enter her apartment again. Shadow sighed. Looking out over the city scape covered in snow, Shadow reached back in his quill and fingered the gift that was meant for Micah. Still wrapped, still there, still undelivered.

Looking back into the room, Shadow thought about how Maria lost a friend that day, and how Amy must have felt the same way. Musing this Shadow took his own personal entrance to the apartment appearing in front of Amy in the living room.

Amy jumped at his arrival.

"On second thought, I'd like something hot."

Amy hesitated a moment before heading to the kitchen. She opened the cupboard only to remember Cream had drunk the last hot coco yesterday with breakfast.

"I don't have coco," Amy called to Shadow in the living room, who only pondered at the awkward name. "But I have some coffee or tea if you'd like." He'd heard of coffee. Rouge had it at her apartment last time he'd been there, prior to Sonic's death.

"Coffee." Shadow said coming into the kitchen. Amy got to work preparing the drink and a tea for herself.

"I'm gonna make you some toast too."

Shadow was about to object, when Amy began to push him toward the table. "You just sit down and get comfortable." Why did she have to touch him?

Amy knew she'd feel better after helping someone. She always did. Plus having some company over, even if it was as dull as Shadow, would help keep her mind off Sonic. Moreover she still needed to know why he was outside.

Shadow sat quietly watching Amy cook. Some how his order of coffee had become four pancakes, two pieces of toast, a muffin and a cup of coffee, regular, to wash it down.

"Uh, Thanks?"

"Don't mention it Shadow." Amy sat opposite Shadow to her breakfast of two pancakes and a cup of tea. Shadow looked at the spread before him. He'd never been served this much, nor was he sure he wanted it all.

"What's the matter?"

Shadow looked up at Amy.

"Nothing."

Amy smiled back then returned to eating. It couldn't be all bad, so Shadow started with the pancakes which to his surprise tasted good. Shadow then realized how hungry he was. He hadn't been eaten correctly for four weeks.

Finishing her last bite, Amy faced Shadow. He was inhaling the food as if he hadn't eaten in years.

"Wow, if I knew you were that hungry I would have made more." Shadow didn't even flinch at her words. Amy just stared on. Sonic couldn't even eat that fast.

Watching the black hedgehog, Amy began to wonder what he was doing on her balcony, and why he seemed upset. Little was known about him other than what was found on the Ark. Even after being with them for a year now, Shadow tended to keep to himself. He never opened up to anyone that she knew of, and he never talked about anything that didn't have to do with the task at hand.

If there was a battle to be fought, he was there, but would at no time celebrate a victory among friends. If that's what he called them. Even Rouge had once said he was just as reserved at home as he was in public. Funny thing was nobody ever seemed to ask him about it. Mostly because of his dismaying appearance.

Shadow had finished his food as he gulped down his coffee, as it had cooled during his eating.

"That was good." Shadow commented setting the cup down on the table.

"Thanks." Amy stood slowly to clear the table. Shadow watched as Amy watched him watching her clear the table while being watch. It was a rather uncomfortable moment for Amy. He was just staring at her.

"You can go watch t.v. if you want."

Shadow didn't respond. It was then clear he was day dreaming, or something of the sort. Amy took her attention off of him and placed the dishes in the washer. Grabbing a wet rag from the sink, Amy began to wipe down the counter and table. Cleaning the space around Shadow, Amy couldn't help but wave her hand in front of his face. His focus was on her immediately.

"What?"

"Your looking kinda, um...lost in thought."

"Sorry."

"No that's okay. So uh what are you thinking about?"

Shadow's gaze fell to the table before fixing on Amy.

"Maria." Her name brought silences after it. Amy began to regret her question for Shadow was still holding eye contact but wasn't saying a word. In a way it seemed he was speaking with his eyes, but it was a language she couldn't understand. Or could she.

Amy knew enough about Shadow to know Maria was someone dear to him. She was his only true friend and she had been killed at a young age. His eyes were hurt. He was hurt, empty or torn inside. Some how she had seen him this close up before; in the mirror...

Shadow watched Amy's curiosity give way to what seemed to be sorrow. She was no longer focusing on him, but on something in her mind.

Sonic had meant a lot to her and only recently last year had he begun to return her love for him. When he first died...was said to be dead, it had almost killed her. She didn't want to imagine life without Sonic. Not at first, not now.

Because of Sonic she could understand Shadow. Which was a big step for someone like her. Maybe she wasn't as different from Shadow as she appeared to be. In a way...

Ring

Both Amy and Shadow turned from each other to observe the phone in Amy's kitchen. The moment between them, however, did brake or fade by the sudden interruption. Amy looked back at Shadow to see he had gone back to staring at something on the table.

"I'll just go get that." Amy went to the phone.

Without moving his head, Shadow watched Amy's conversation. She never took notice to his prying eyes as she received the call.

"Hey Cream, how are you?"

Shadow watched as Amy seemed to become her former self. The forced smile she had been wearing since he entered her home also nerved him. He had watched her cry and morn for two days. He knew her attitude was false. But why?

Amy always appeared to show how she felt regardless of what others thought. If she was truly upset about Sonic's death, why would she hide her feeling from her friends.

Shadow shook the thoughts from his head. It didn't matter, it wasn't his business. To tell the truth, he shouldn't have been spying on Amy or have entered her home the way he did. It would probably be best if he made his leave.

From the phone Amy watched her guest rise from the table and head for the apartment door.

"Could you hold a moment Cream?" Receiving the yes to leave the conversation, Amy placed the phone gently next to its holder to follow Shadow.

"Where are you going?"

"Home." Which was an easily distinguished lie. Amy's temper rose a bit at Shadow's rude behavior, leaving without a thank you or pleasant smile, but also because in a way she didn't want him to leave. Amy quickly positioned herself in front of the apartment door before the black hedgehog could get there.

"Not yet," Those words didn't come out quiet right. "I mean, please stay longer." Amy took Shadow's arm and lead him to the living room. Reluctantly Shadow allowed himself to be escorted to the living area. He could tell by the urgence in her voice that she was in need of some social interaction. Mainly one that would remove Sonic from her mind long enough for her to relax. How 'he' did that he didn't know. Especially because of his similarities to the blue blur.

Seeing to it that Shadow had sat down and was agreeing to remain in the house longer, Amy went back to the phone.

Shadow sat, waiting, not sure what to do. Observing the room, the Christmas decorations were still up. Which in a way said something profound about Amy's character. Even with Sonic dead and the sadness that engulfed her this holiday, she still took the time to decorate. She also was pretending to be joyful with Cream yesterday so not to ruin the young girls morning. There was something was different about Amy. She wouldn't allow all happiness to leave her no matter what happened to her.

Shadow listened as Amy continue her talk with Cream. How could she remain so...so, happy? What made Amy able to handle the loss of a loved one who left only a month ago.

Amy twisted a finger around the cord and laughed at the innocence of the young caller on the other end. The laugh had a giddy, girlishness to it. Was it the laugh? Could Amy be this lighthearted because she laughed?

If that was the case then Shadow wasn't going to change. Laughter was not something he would conform to. He wouldn't even consider that self-degrading activity to make utterance from his mouth...and yet. Amy's happiness...

The pink hedgehog continued her conversation as Shadow continued to listen. She was probably smiling. Could that have something to do with anything?

Smiling wasn't that bad. Certainly he could try a smile. Shadow turned his attention back to the room around him looking for some sort of reflective surface. The television!

Shadow stood and went to the darkened glass surface. Bending, Shadow got a full view of his face.

His first smile seemed to be more of a look of disgust. His second a grin for world domination. The third would frighten children, the fourth will be left to the imagination. Shadow was about to try one more time when the television hummed to life blinding him with its brilliant light.

"The remote's over here."

As his vision returned to him, Shadow could make out Amy holding the television controller. She had placed herself on the couch as if to be joining him for some entertainment.

"Well come sit down."

Shadow did as ordered.

"Do you like any show specifically?" Amy handed the remote to Shadow. Giving the mechanical devise a once over, the black hedgehog began to flip through the channels.

"I'm Benedict Hraps," The announcer began, "I was skydiving when my parachute wouldn't open. I hit the ground where I broke my shoulder and rolled into the lake."

Shadow raised an eyebrow to the sheer stupidity being played before him.

"There I save a puppy from drowning with my good arm, and swam back to shore, using only my legs. While being chased by a gator."

Blank stares formed on both hedgehogs' faces.

"Give me that thing." Amy grabbed the remote back changing to a late Christmas special. From the place were they started watching the movie, Amy couldn't tell what film it was. But it didn't matter, anything was better than Benedict. After a few minuets Amy lost interest in the film and turned her attention back to Shadow. He also seemed to be losing interest, tapping his fingers sporadically against the sofa arm. Maybe now would be the best time to ask him what he was doing on her balcony.

"Uh, Shadow?"

"Yeah!"

Amy was startled by Shadows quick reaction and the full attention she was now receiving.

"I was wondering..."

Shadow suddenly jumped from the couch to in front of the television.

"About this movie!" The black hedgehog pointed an accusing finger at the screen.

"No not really,"

"Because I think this movie sucks."

Amy's mouth was slightly ajar as Shadow went on explaining his bold remark. "If that man really loved that woman at the beginning of the film he never would have left home in the first place! And, instead of wasting his money carelessly on presents he can't even get to her, he should be trying to get a bus ticket! Wouldn't that make more sense? Am I right"

Amy was shocked.

"What?" She had never heard Shadow so excited about something like this before. It was odd, and definitely unexplained.

"This movie, it makes no sense! He never should have left." Shadow fell backward onto the couch bouncing Amy.

"It wouldn't be a movie if he didn't leave on that business trip."

"Yeah, well how was his plane delayed?"

"He said because of the snow."

"Plot convenience."

"It's a movie!"

"And a senseless one at that!"

"What is wrong with you?"

Shadow positioned himself upright on the sofa.

"Nothing is wrong." His remark was calmer than his pervious comments. He took notice of Amy's confused and in some respects disturbed expression. In light of this he decided to elaborate on his answer. "Well I do feel a little more active." The disturbed look did not remove its self from the girl's face. "I mean, I have more energy...I don't know." Shadow returned to watching the film.

"The coffee." Amy replied.

"What?"

"I think it's the coffee."

"What about it?"

"Shh this is the part when they get back together!"

Both hedgehogs watched as the two actors ran to greet each other in the snow.

"She went to him?" Shadow asked mildly disappointed by the way the story was ending.

"Isn't it wonderful?"

"..."

"Oh come on, that was wonderful."

"No it really wasn't."

"Well how would you have ended it?"

Shadow thought about the question for a moment, then turned to the screen to see the credits scrolling. He caught a glimpse of the lead actress' name, Marie. The energy rush fell out of him as he remembered Micah and his reason for leaving.

"He wouldn't have left in the first place." Shadow's answer was full of anger. Amy could tell Shadow had some dark connotation with his response. He stared blankly at the scrolling names.

"Not for business, not for another women. He had no reason to leave. Especially without saying good-bye." Shadow had rose and made his way to standing directly in front of the television.

"She can't get back to you," He whispered so only the names on screens could hear him. Shadow faced Amy, breathing heavy. "He never would have left." Closing his eyes, Shadow turned away from Amy.

She knew his sudden mood change had to do with Maria, but she wasn't daring enough to ask...Okay maybe she was, just not directly.

"Then would he have found out how much she meant to him?" Shadow didn't move. "If they never spent the time apart, then he never would have realized how much he wanted to be with his wife for Christmas. And that gifts wouldn't fix the problem of loneliness." His hands balled into fists, unfortunately out of her sight. "Does this remind you of Maria?"

Her exculpatory curiosity, how it would get her killed one day. Holding back as much anger as possible, knowing Amy meant well, that she had let her emotions out...

_Maria_

Why couldn't he get over Maria? Why was she always the stumbling block in his life. This wasn't what she wanted for him and yet here he was, living this ever present nightmare.

"I'm sorry."Her recanting was too late, but meant so earnestly. Amy watched as Shadow slowly began to tremble.

_Note to self, coffee plus Shadow equals weird emotional brake down._

"I didn't mean to upset you." Amy stood by Shadow, his eye lids tightening to fight back tears. Which in a way made her sad. Seeing some one hurt, it made her instantly feel sympathy, and poured salt onto her open wound. Shadow was anguished by Maria's death much like she was for Sonic's And with the help of caffeine he was allowing a small glimpse into his internal distress.

Thinking back on the invitation given to her by Cream over the phone, Amy gave a small smile.

"Why don't we spend the day together."

The former emotion leaving his body, Shadow let out a sigh response. "Cream has invited me to go ice skating in the park this afternoon. Well really in a few minutes, so why don't you come too?"

Had she just missed his moment of depression? Shadow brought his gaze to meet Amy's. All fear of Shadow's creepiness aside, Amy smiled warmly and nodded her head.

"It's settled then, your coming."

"I didn't say that."

Amy ignored his remark and quickly went to her room.

"Just let me grab a few things!" She called out to him. Now was his chance to leave if ever. Shadow turn to go when once again the television caught his attention. It was another movie for Christmas. Two children kneeling before their beds praying a blessing over their family.

"And God bless Mommy and Daddy. Amen." The little boy finish as he climbed into bed. Then he and his sister spotted the first star of Christmas night theatrically at the same time. The two children smiled at each other as they were about to make a wish. It would be the same wish for both, and Shadow knew that for the sake of the movie it would come true. But as the kids opened their mouths to speak the screen went black.

Amy had entered the room and switched it off by remote. Shadow rounded to face her. She had dressed her self in what seemed to be the usual red dress, but now it's hem were puffy like cotton. The sleeves extended to her gloves and she wore white leggings tucked into her boots.

"Your not going outside with only a scarf are you?" Amy shook her head then opened the storage closest. "Here's a jacket." The clothing was tossed to Shadow were he caught it in the air.

Amy went to the apartment door only to realize Shadow wasn't following. He was still standing in the room now looking at the television again.

"Are you coming?"

Was he?

_o_

The park was full that morning. Shadow gave a despairing sigh. This wasn't what he wanted to be doing. He never intended to be spending time with Amy or humoring her fancies. He had simply visited because she reminded him of something. Something he now wishes he could have forgot.

"I don't see Cream anywhere, do you?"

Shadow's attention was back on Amy as she began talking. She did nothing but talk really. The entire walk here had been nothing but stories about nonsense.

"No I don't." He said flatly. Amy cupped her hands over her eyes to block the sun as she continued her search.

"I think that's her over there." Amy took Shadow's wrist and started for her friend

Shadow watched as people skated on the lake. Couples holding hands and friends laughing and sharing the gossip they had accumulated over the days. The snow from the night before had made the park more of a winter wonderland, enticing kids to build and play in the snow.

The happiness and wonder all disturbed the black hedgehog. The furries on the ice had good reason to be joyful, and yet no reason at all. They acted as if nothing in their life was wrong. All things were going their way and that when they got home there would be no hardships awaiting them. His pain had happened over fifty years ago and he still hurt, what did they do differently?

"Hey Cream, Vanilla," Amy was greeting her friends. "I brought Shadow along, I hope you don't mind."

The small rabbit smiled in response to Amy.

"Of course we don't mind, we'd love to have Mr. Shadow skate with us." Her gay attitude evoked Shadow to give a fake smile. A very weak, fake smile.

"You all have fun," Vanilla grinned, turning to head toward the benches. "I'll just watch you from there."

"I think I'll join her." Shadow quickly turned to follow the older rabbit when Amy stopped him.

"Why don't you skate with Cream and me first, see if you like it."

Shadow simply walked past Amy in response.

"Why doesn't he want to join us, Amy?" Cream asked her friend, staring after the leaving hedgehog.

"He never enjoyed being with people much."

"At least he came," Cream took Amy's hand and lead her out to the ice. "That must mean something."

Shadow and Vanilla watched the two friends slipping and laughing on the ice. Vanilla smiling and waving at Cream, Shadow wishing he was anywhere but there.

"Cream's improved so much,"

Shadow looked up. "What?"

"My daughter, her skating has improved this year." Vanilla gave a small laugh as Shadow raised an eyebrow. If she was trying to start a conversation it was going to go in vain. Shadow tried to look away, deterring eye contact and a sense of openness, but the mother continued her chat.

"Last year she had slipped and bumped her chin on the ice. She was crying and carrying on that she would never go skating again. But look at her. She can almost keep up with Amy now."

Suddenly the brightness left Vanilla's voice and her eyes cast downward. "I thank Sonic for encouraging her to try again." The mention of Sonic's name caught Shadow's attention. Vanilla took note of this and continued her story seeing Shadow was now engaged

"He sat with us for a while telling Cream about a time he wanted to give up." Tears formed in the mother's eyes as she stared off recalling the story. "Cream was thrilled to hear how he overcame his problem and she got up and begged him to teach her to skate."

Shadow tilted his head as a light laugh escaped Vanilla's lips. "He was afraid to go out on the ice because he thought it would break. It took both Amy and Cream to drag him out there."

"Amy was there?"

"She's usually wherever Sonic is . . . was."

Shadow turned to watch Amy . . . and Cream, skate. The pink hedgehog was actually pretty good. Cream was slipping a bit, which was a funny sight at times. She would always get back up and shrug it off, ready to try again. Just like Sonic taught her.

"It has been a year Shadow," The black hedgehog looked back at the rabbit across from him. "You've been with us for a year and we still know little about you."

"There's nothing you need to know."

"Please take this opportunity to get to know us. I mean you've been a loner for so long, why not try to befriend someone."

Shadow rose to his feet. "Please don't leave Shadow," Vanilla got to her feet and moved beside him. "There's a reason you came here with Amy, you two might have a lot in common. Get to know her."

Shadow sized the woman beside him, considering what she said.

"I'm sorry." Shadow turned his back to her and walked away. He didn't belong there, he shouldn't have even went there. He could hear her call his name again before getting out of ear shot.

Maybe he should get to know them...but why, what good would it honestly do him.


	4. Chapter 4

(A/N) Update! I need to do this more often. Oh Well, A lots going on. I'VE ADDED MORE TO CHAPTER 3! Make sure you've read it or you may be confused. It's just a little more. I hope you all like this chapter.

Christmas day had passed on the island and Christmas night had fallen. Though still warm, a coolness spread over Angel Island with the night. With crisp air and clear skies, a quarter moon and the Master Emerald were now the only sources of constant light. The night sky was filled with thousands of stars. Like a jet black sheet with diamonds cast on it, the sight was beautiful to behold.

Knuckles and Rouge had spent the afternoon talking basically about nothing, and Rouge had taken a nap at some point. They had managed not to spend Christmas alone and, other than a failed attempt at a Christmas party Amy put together two years ago, this would be Knuckles' first time doing so. In some way he enjoyed Rouge's company. It helped him forget about Sonic for the afternoon and let his mind rest.

"It's been a while since I've been able to really look at the stars."

The two were seated at the bottom of the altar steps. Knuckles was lazily listening to Rouge comment about things. Odd enough, it was the first time they had ever just sat and talked, like cognitive people.

"You'd think a bat would be outside at night a lot." Knuckles smirked closing his eyes and resting his hands behind his head.

"Yeah, but not out here. Lately I've been around cities and stuff. Can't see the stars from there."

"Hmm." The echidna began to doze. He had seen the sight a thousand times, there was nothing new about it. Rouge gave a glace at Knuckles; grinning slightly at the opportunity.

"I bet the whole island looks better at night," Rouge said with a hint of seduction in her voice. "You think you could show me around Knux?" The bat scooted closer to Knuckles. Then placing a hand on the other side of him for balance, Rouge leaned over him.

Even in his restful state, Knuckles took note to Rouge's new position. He was flustered, flushed, and beyond ill at ease. He snapped open his eyes to meet her gaze.

"Give me a little tour, you know what I mean?"

Did he know what she...what? This was not a comfortable moment for Knuckles. It was bad enough that she was kind of attractive, and now that she was this close with the moon light behind her and they were alone..._Gaw don't think like that!_ Knuckles had to admit Rouge had a certain appeal. It's not like he likes her or anything, it's just she. . . he couldn't explain it.

So deep in his confusion Knuckles missed something Rouge was now saying. _She's chuckling, what's that mean?_

Sensing his discomfort, Rouge leaned in closer. "Come on Knuckles." He really was dense, it was so cute. If everything went smoothly enough, maybe she could tell him. It was the whole reason she was here and endured several hours of direct sun light. She needed to tell Knuckles how she felt.

"Look I'm tired..."

"Please." Rouge annoyingly held the 'e.' How was he suppose to answer? If he said no she'd get angry, but he hadn't slept well that night and was tired. He needed to be at his best to guard the Master Emerald. "Come on Knuckles. Yes or no, this isn't that hard."

Turning the possibilities in his head one more time, Knuckles cast his sight a little more south then intended. Noticing his change in focus, Rouge backhanded the side of the echidna's face.

"Ow, What Was That For!" Knuckles placed a hand to the afflicted area. Rouge got to her feet and glared down at the confused and wounded echidna.

"Do I honestly have to answer that."

Knuckles rose to confront Rouge face to face.

"Yeah!"

"No need to shout, pervert."

"What!"

"I caught your shifty eyes. You can't even fess up to it?" A grin tugged at the corner of Rouge's mouth. She knew Knuckles didn't do too much wrong; he probably wasn't aware of what he was doing. That wasn't the point, however, Knuckles was cute when he was mad. It was also when he showed the most affection. He would blush or mix up words, stuff like that. It was the most convincing proof she had that he liked her.

"Sorry if I 'offended' you somehow, but I am not a pervert."

"Then what were you doing looking there. Remembering some basic anatomy."

Why was she on the defensive? What did he do? She always started fights like this, sometimes Knuckles thought she did it on purpose, just to annoy him.

"Look I didn't try, I didn't do..."

"Stuttering doesn't help your case."

"Look at you! You can't really look anywhere without being offensive. I mean your attractive."

A moment passed. This line stopped Rouge's counter attack. It was what she wanted to hear and she was ready to move on to the walk.

"Come on Knuckles." The bat started strolling away snapping her fingers at her side as if summing Knuckles like a dog. Slightly dumbfounded by Rouge's sudden change in temper, Knuckles wasn't sure how to respond.

After a second Rouge took notice that Knuckles wasn't following. She looked over her shoulder to see the baffled expression gazing back at her.

"You coming echidna?"

"No," Knuckles shook his head and glimpsed at the emerald. "I have to guard the Master Emerald."

"You're going to wither away watching that stupid thing just to one day find out noone was after it at all." The remark came out harsher then Rouge wanted it to, but she needed this time with him. He needed to know how she felt and he couldn't if he was all worried about that rock.

Knuckles sighed. She was defiantly the oddest person he had ever come to know, and her statements always found a way to get under his skin.

"Ryuu's after it."

"Not all hours of the night, Knuckles."

"But enough to keep me on my toes." Knuckles faced her, his annoyance rising. "The Master Emerald is all I have left of my tribe. I am here to protect it and that's what I'm going to do. I care about them and what will happen if the emerald ends up in Ryuu's possession."

Rouge was speechless for the first time that evening. She had finally struck a nerve in Knuckles that pushed him to the edge. He felt more than just obligation to his people and friends in watching that rock and she knew that.

Knuckles took no notice to his visitor's thoughts. As far as he knew, she was simply trying to lead him away from the gem so she could take it for herself. Grant it she hadn't done that in a while and certainly wouldn't try to endanger everyone by taking it from its guardian now, but still. Whatever she was doing in 'taking a walk' was for some selfish motive.

"I can't believe you can't understand that," Knuckles continued heading to attend to his gem. "But I guess that's not your focus, is it thief."

Upon hearing those words Rouge snapped out of her thoughts. He was not going to say that about her. Of course she cared about what was happening with Ryuu and what not, but she wasn't going to let it ruin her life. She had come to close to that already and wasn't about to relive it. Or allow someone to tell her she didn't care about anything else but herself.

The bat extended her wings and flew herself over to be eye level with Knuckles.

"Answer me this. When have you ever cared about an event outside of your rock?" Without waiting for a response, Rouge took off leaving the island for home.

Knuckles sighed and returned to watching the gem, and grieving the lose of his friend only four weeks ago.

* * *

"What happened!" Rouge came along side Shadow the day Sonic had been killed. Knuckles had just been found wounded in the side. A quick sting of fear struck Rouge's heart as she saw Knuckles laying motionless in the snow. Could he be dead...? Rouge shook the feeling not wanting to humor that thought. Also not to show fear. Still her breathing increased and she couldn't hold back a wave of panic. Rouge wanted to do something to help him, but couldn't.

"He's been poisoned, but I don't know by what." Shadow began checking the echidna for a heart beat. Amy joined the two by their fallen comrade.

"Is he going to be alright?"

"He has a pulse."

"Maybe we should take him to a doctor?" Tails also joined the group.

"What about Sonic?" Amy protested looking about for her beloved.

Knuckles winched a bit in pain as he began to regain consciousness. A bit of felicity raised in Rouge as Knuckles awoke. He was okay! The small celebration didn't last long, however, as Knuckles' face formed into a look of worry.

"Where's Sonic?" He gestured to the place where Sonic had been laying.

"What do you mean?" Amy was beginning to panic.

Knuckles then did as best he could to explain what happened. Hearing Sonic was dead was a shock to the whole group. The bigger shock for Rouge being Knuckles faced Ryuu head on... alone. He could have been killed. He could have been killed and he'd never know...

Not that Knuckles had never come close to death before, but Sonic...Sonic did die. Ryuu was serious, if he wanted to he probably could of...

"Rouge?"

The bat turned to face Shadow who took a moment to before speaking again. "You have more reason to be worried about Sonic."

"What?" Becoming a bit agitated as she fought back the welling in her eyes, Rouged turned away from Shadow.

"Knuckles is going to be fine."

"I know," Rouge's voice softened. "That's not what's bothering." Rouge extended her wings for take-off.

"I wouldn't advise going home alone."

"Maybe I don't want your advise, just...leave me alone." With that she left. Shadow never returned to the apartment after that.

* * *

Rouge entered her apartment. Closing the door behind her, Rouge just stood there. The room was dark, but her eyes were adjusting. Everything she had ever earned or stole was locked away in this room. Her finest gems, family memorabilia, and household goods.

"Everything I've ever needed." And indeed she had managed to get anything she ever set her mind on to get. There was nothing she wouldn't allow herself to have.

"And you never thought you'd be stolen from." A familiar voice came from the couch as if trying to finish her thought. Squinting into the darkness didn't identify the person, but Rouge knew who it had to be.

"Shadow? What are you doing back here?"

Shadow didn't answer, instead he rose to his feet and headed for the old room he use to occupy. "So your not going to talk to me. Just walk into my house, Shadow. Mi casa, tu casa."

The black hedgehog disappeared from the room. Rouge waited a few minutes after his departure before moving to her room. Flicking on the light to the master bedroom, the bat sighed. Being a night person it was odd for her to feel so tired, but Rouge pulled her sleep ware from the dresser and went to bed. The sooner today was over the better.

Morning didn't bring much relief. Rouge woke up at about five with the failed attempt of telling her feelings fresh on her mind. Remembering Shadow was at the apartment, Rouge threw a robe over her night gown before heading out into the kitchen. Putting on a pot of coffee Rouge sat down at the table.

Rouge placed an elbow on the table and propped her head in her hand. She watched the coffee brew slowly in its glass container. All she wanted to do was tell Knuckles how she felt about him, and though she expected a small fight or two, she didn't think she'd offend him the way she did. The Master Emerald was important, she knew that, she just wanted Knuckles to take a break from it. His whole life seemed to surround that stupid thing. How could she even hope to compete with that.

"Is it a two way street, or is it all about you?"

Rouge quickly rounded her seat to find Shadow standing in the door frame of the kitchen.

"Shut-up Shadow." Rouge returned to her original position trying to ignore Shadow's remarks. The black hedgehog joined her at the table and both sat in silence. Each had their own set of thoughts but nothing was expressed.

When the coffee had finished, Rouge got up from her seat and made herself a cup.

"Want some?" She asked. Shadow responded surprisingly with a nod. He had never wanted caffeinated beverages before. Oh well. Rouge poured Shadow a mug and sat down next to him. "So where have you been for the last month?"

Staring into his drink, Shadow decided to take Vanilla's advise. He had been living with Rouge for quite some time up until Sonic's death, and could admit to her being the closes 'friend' he had at the time. What could it hurt to try and get to know them. Without Sonic many of Sonic's friends were grieving and seemed to share a common pain with Shadow. Pain being something he knew much about.

"I've been walking."

"For a month? Really, were have you been?"

"Walking."

"So you've just been walking all this time. Why didn't you come back here?"

"I didn't think you wanted my company." Shadow sipped from his cup trying his best to remain engaged in the conversation. He hated chatting about futile things.

"Come on Shadow. Can't you give more detail than that?"

"Why do you need to know about me?"

"Because you've been missing for four weeks."

"And what about you?"

A questionable look was on Rouge's face. Shadow knew she had just finished a bad meeting with Knuckles. It would be the only place she'd go around Christmas. But watching her as he had for the past year, he's come to know Rouge as a selfish person. She would do just about anything to get what she wanted and was just recently learning Love doesn't work that way.

"I haven't been doing to much. Why?"

Shadow finished off his coffee before speaking. "You're being too demanding in your relationship."

It took a moment for Rouge to register what Shadow meant, but when she understood Rouge became furious.

"Don't you start. You don't even speak with people half the time and you think you can tell me how to treat others."

Vanilla's advise didn't seem to be the best in all cases. Shadow knew he was right about Rouge's attitude toward Knuckles. She was treating him like a prize to be won, or stolen, over accepting all that he was.

"You treat him like he's somehow beneath you. You've always played games with him and manipulated him. Why don't you be straight forward with him and treat him like an equal?"

This was Rouge second speechless moment for the week.

"Instead of seducing him to be interested in you why don't you humble yourself and allow him to choose you if he wants you."

He was right. She hated to admit it, but Shadow was right. Never had he spoken like that before, But He Was Right.

"Why don't I?"

Shadow tapped his finger impatiently on the surface of the table. Rouge watched for a moment thinking about what was said to her.

"Not use to coffee, yet?" Rouge asked breaking the silence.

"Amy gave me some yesterday and I liked it, thought I'd have some here. It wakes you up."

"Amy?" Rouge smirked. "I thought you said you went walking?"

"I did."

"And Amy fits into that how? Is that why you're giving me advise, Love Doctor?"

Shadow grunted at the response. "How about this. I'll try your advise about me and Knuckles if you fill me in on your 'little' love adventure with Amy Rose?"

"Don't make me hurt you."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Come on Shadow your slowing everything up."

Shadow raced after Maria placing her cards on top of every gift. Dodging equipment Maria ran through the Ark delivering her surprises seven minutes before the first research shift started. Not a single person was missed. Maria even got small treats and candies for the other experiments aboard the Ark.

"Here you go Standards." Maria placed an extra helping of food to the lizards under testing, and a special treat to the Komodo Dragon. Maria felt its testing was more severe then the other experiments in the standard reptile section. From there Maria ran to the mammals that were examined for Project Shadow.

Shadow felt a bit uneasy following Maria here, but pushed the felling aside to please his only friend. Younger animals were given toys and candies of some kind, and the elders were feed bigger servings of daily meals.

"Merry Christmas all." The girl smiled warmly as the creatures indulged in their delights. Being caught up in the excitement of it all, Maria almost missed Shadow's expression. He seemed resentful.

"Is something wrong Shadow?"

"Huh, no."

"Are you mad at something?"

"Is that a surprise?"

Maria gave a soft laugh to Shadow's response. Shadow was often bothered by something, or at least looked mad.

"Try to cheer up Shadow, it's Christmas." Maria began pulling on Shadow's cheeks to make a smile. The black hedgehog only swatted her hands away. "Come on." The girl placed her hands on her hips.

"I don't understand why Christmas is this important to you." Shadow sighed turning from Maria's gaze.

"Sounds to me like you need to read Matthew again."

"Hmm."

"That's what we'll do tonight." Maria reached into the bag she had been carrying with the gifts. She pulled out Shadow's present and held it out next to his ear. Upon seeing the box intended for him, a small grin appeared on Shadow's face. "I was going to save your gift til last, but I don't see any harm in giving it to you now."

Shadow received the box from her hand and gave it a once over. Giving Maria one last glance, the dark hedgehog opened his gift. "They're home-made chocolates, my grandfather helped me make them."

The smile Shadow had been holding was slowly fading. He knew Maria's cooking.

"Thanks." His less than enthusiastic voice gave his inner thoughts away.

"It's not going to be that bad." Shadow didn't respond. "Come on we have to hurry and deliver the rest of the presents before everyone wakes up." Maria left the room for her final stop, Micah's desk. Shadow lingered in the room a bit longer. He looked at the other experiments that lead up to his creation. To some extent he felt he owed them.

"Merry Christmas" His words were slow and foreign to his tongue. Shadow quickly emptied the chocolates into his hand. Racing around the room he left a sweet morsel for each mammal that could eat them.

Their eyes met for a moment.

After delivering his gifts, Shadow left the room to catch up with Maria. The room was still and roughly silent. In less then a hour the painful experiments would start again, and Christmas would be over.

* * *

Shadow found himself on the balcony of Amy Rose for the second time that week. After having breakfast with Rouge, he had allowed himself to be talked into visiting Amy again. The only problem was now that he was here, he didn't know what to do. He didn't want to go to the front door, he wouldn't know how to act. Not that it mattered...

Why he felt this way about Amy was beyond him. After recalling Vanilla's words and having Rouge coax him into admitting he liked Amy over most other company, Shadow began to find some form of enjoyment in the mere thought of Amy.

She understood him, and despite past shortcomings she accepted him as a 'friend.' He didn't love her or anything of that nature, he just...felt close to her. He had watched her for two days through the double glass doors. He saw the pain and unadulterate anguish. Comparing Amy's feelings to his own tormented past made him sympathize with her. It felt good to know someone felt the way he did. Of course he didn't wish this upon her or anyone, but it still felt good.

Remaining out of view, Shadow watched Amy enter her living room and then hurry back to her bedroom. Spying on her sent a quick guilty burn over his body, but he couldn't draw himself away. He needed to think of something. He couldn't sit here and observe her like this, yet he pushed aside the idea of confronting her without reason. What was he doing there? His whole involvement with Amy was ill-sorted.

Amy had spent the afternoon at the park looking for Shadow until Vanilla told her he had left. A tad upset he would leave without as much as a good bye, Amy headed home, alone. She had enjoyed the day with Cream and her mother, but it had ended too soon. The laughter and skating was like a flicker in time in measurement to the hours she spent crying for Sonic. She refused to think he was dead.

Amy was cleaning up her apartment. Putting away Christmas decorations and removing ribbons and bows. The holiday rush was over and a new year would soon begin. Her first new year without Sonic since she's come to know him.

A sigh escaped her lips. Amy went to her room and dragged a large box from her closet to the living room. Amy then pulled several smaller boxes from inside it. Amy filled the smaller boxes with the ornaments from the tree and stacked them neatly in the larger package. Finishing this task, Amy gazed upon her bear tree. Its shine and wonder had faded. It was only the dying limbs of a once great pine. It resembled her hope. She was losing it. She didn't want to admit it, but she was losing hope.

But Sonic couldn't be dead. She can't lose hope. He would return someday...someday...what day?

Amy clenched her fists, gritted her teeth, held her tears. Anger and sadness fought a war in her mind; both wanting to get out of her. Take back what was their's.

"SONIKKU!"

Amy's knees gave out. She fell to the ground placing her hands on the floor to steady herself. Amy allowed the tears to flow as she wept bitterly.

"I won't lose hope," Amy promised between sobs. "Sonic I...I can't lose..." Her tears drowned out her words and Amy continued to cry.

By this time Shadow had entered the apartment. He was standing behind Amy and hadn't been noticed yet. He closed his eyes and stood silently by, all thoughts on Maria.

* * *

It was early morning on his island and Knuckles had spend the night awake worrying and fretting about Rouge's words, Ryuu's plans, Sonic's death, and just about anything else. Knuckles dangled his legs over the edge of the alter to watch the sun rise east of his position.

"Life sucks." The guardian closed his eyes and allowed the thoughts to come to him. He didn't stop them; didn't try to push them from his mind. He let himself think what may and feel it.

He had wasted his life. Hardly anyone came for his emerald, and when they had Knuckles could count on Sonic and the others to help him get it back.

Tell the truth, for the past couple of adventures, Knuckles had left the Master Emerald behind. He was caught up in the thrill of a chase, or the pride of a moment. For the first time in a long time he was included in something. Something other than this. A 7 mohs ball and chain.

Knuckles had spent his whole life watching after this rock. He never had the friends and things that he was now experiencing, but with Sonic gone...

There was no guarantee that, if Eggman attacked again, the day would be saved. Sonic, the hero, was dead. Ryuu would one day attack again, and where would that leave everyone. The emerald needed him now more than ever; he had to protect it.

Knuckles raised a fist in the air and lifted his eyes toward the heavens. He would now pledge to stay with the Master Emerald, guard it with his life and give up all he had to defend it.

"I will defend you..." The vigor died. His statement seemed false; his desires changed. What did he want? What does Knuckles the Echidna want! 'He' wanted to turn, and with all his might, smash that stupid rock into unfixable pieces. He wanted to take all the years of frustration, anger, hurt... loneliness, and he wanted to make it pay.

Knuckles redirected his clenched fist at the Master Emerald. A new energy in him...

Before Knuckles could proceed to performing any course of action, a sharp gripping pain took hold of the echidna's side. The bruise from Ryuu's syringe. Knuckles' clenched hand drew in to cover the affected area as a small moan escaped his lips. Doubled over in pain, Knuckles could only open one eye to glare back at the mystic stone.

He wouldn't of done it. Even if he wasn't hurt, he never could betray his people like that. Knuckles well understood his duty as guardian. It was his destiny...his cruse...to watch the Master Emerald. He had to. He just had to.

Rouge had arrived at the island as morning was braking in. The bat quickly removed her sweater upon her arrival and embraced the tropical surroundings the island had to offer.

"Got to hand it to you Knuckles, you sure can pick good real-estate." Rouge discarded her coverings on a modest bush near by, then stretched her legs a bit before heading for the alter. She knew she wouldn't have to go far; Knuckles would soon be running at her calling her an intruder and menace to society. A smirk crossed Rouge's face. Knuckles was a bit high strung. Always worrying about things that will never happen. The young woman chuckled thinking about him. He was someone she could always laugh at. _I'm not suppose to be thinking this way._

Rouge shock the thoughts out of her head. She needed to focus if she wanted to get her feelings out on the table.

"The only way to prove you love someone is to treat them with love."

Rouge never thought of Shadow as too bright, but at times he made a whole lot of sense. "All he sees in you is a rival and maybe nonsense. Show him something worth liking back and that cares about him. And don't leave on a business trip."

"What does that have to do with Knuckles?"

"Everything."

Yeah, those words, they didn't make sense, but the loving selflessly did.

"Loving someone isn't for getting, it's for giving of yourself for someone else. I think I got it." Rouge said to herself. She could admit she had been a little demanding in this relationship. _Just a little_. She wasn't fully aware of Knuckles' ideals, but that was going to change. Today she was going to get everything off her chest, figure out Knuckles feelings for her, and have time left to hunt the remaining four chaos emeralds. Or maybe get to know him better.

While still walking Rouge began to feel troubled. Not a sick feeling, but one of anxiety. Something was wrong, and it was close. This is when the bat took notice that the birds and bugs around her had become unnaturally silent.

Rouge checked over her shoulder before picking up her pace for the alter. She didn't like surprises, and this was turning out to be one. Somehow she just knew something was about to happen and she didn't want to be taken by storm.

"Aren't we in a hurry."

Rouge stopped. That voice. _Oh please don't let it be._

The sound seemed to have come from behind her, but Rouge didn't want to face him alone. Rouge was off the ground in flight in a matter of seconds only to have a cutting electrical shock pulse through her body. Pained, Rouge fell to the ground with a sickening thud.

"Electrical field. Pretty old technology, but good enough to catch you."

Rouge could only wince in pain as she tried to look up at her attacker, Ryuu, without seeing his face, she knew it was him. "And such a pretty thing you are too. Going to see the guardian I presume." The hedgehog knelt down to his victim. "That's good. Very good. I'm sure he's looking forward to seeing you too."

Ryuu stood up and straightened his trench coat. He also brushed the dirt from the tail of it before waving two robots over. Ryuu considered himself a dignified hedgehog and a hegdie of style. It was now time to show his best qualities, and he knew just where to do it. "Tie her up and follow me. And remember, bats like to hang upside down."

Ryuu filled every sentence he spoke with some degree of dramatic effect. It seemed he had structured them like lines in a play. He was enjoying every minuet aspect of his plan as Rouge was being dragged by her feet across the island. The ropes around her chafed while the blood supply to her ankles was cut off by the robots hold on her. Adding to her existing pain, the fact that her head was banging against rocks and gravel didn't help. To top off this morning, Rouge still couldn't see Ryuu or even the machines holding on to her.

After what seemed like hours to Rouge, the robots stopped and Ryuu could be heard leaving. Rouge forced an eye open. Ryuu had taken her near the altar. He was planning some kind of attack on the Master Emerald!

The guardian was carrying out his daily routine watching over the emerald. He hadn't done much since his soul searching that morning. Pacing around the altar seemed to help relax him. Still, Knuckles couldn't help but feel something was amiss.

Knuckles stopped walking at the steps of the altar. Looking up at the gem once, then back out to the trees at the end of the clearing, the sense that someone was on the island began to peek. Could it be Rouge again?

Knuckles clenched his fists. It wouldn't be. Usually if she visited, and a decently hostile argument broke out between them, she would stay away for an extended period of time. Probably trying to make him feel bad. No this wasn't her...

_Pain_

Knuckles' side seemed to swell up in pain. Never had it felt like this before; he hadn't even done anything to hurt himself.

Depraved laughter was now coming from the top of the altar. Knuckles turned as best he could to see his mocker. Ryuu! And next to his Emerald!

"My dear boy, could you give me a run for my money!" The dark hedgehog smiled down at the anguished echidna. "I mean, surly you're not going to let me take your gem without a fight are you?"

Hurt or not, Knuckles wasn't going to let Ryuu escape him this time. He would kill him for Sonic, for Mobius, For Revenge.

The pain coursing through his body did nothing to slow Knuckles down. He was at the top of the altar before Ryuu could even strike a pose of defense. The echidna's first blow was with his dominate fist. A hit into Ryuu's gut toppling the hedgehog to the ground. Knuckles leaped from the Master Emerald's resting place down beside Ryuu.

"You're tougher than I first antici..."

Knuckles didn't wait for the cretin to finish his sentence before he grabbed Ryuu by the neck. Suspending the hedgehog Knuckles fought back the urge to snap Ryuu's neck.

"I'm gonna make you pay. What I'm going to do to you is so curl," Knuckles tightened his grip. "I can't even form it into words."

Never had Knuckles felt this way, he had never been so angry in his life. It seemed like his teeth would crack under the stress at which he grit them. He was going to avenge Sonic now.

_Pain_

His Side! Knuckles dropped a now smiling Ryuu. Again Knuckles found himself in a weak position gripping the wound this hedgehog had given him.

After a light cough Ryuu, shaking, got to his feet.

"Micro-chip. Imitates nerve signals. I can increase your pain at any moment."

_I'm gonna kill you. I'm not gonna die trying, not over my dead body._ "I'm Going To Kill You!"

The pain was pushed aside as the afflicted echidna rose to meet his challenger. Knuckles charged a very surprised Ryuu. Knuckles narrowly missed Ryuu's stomach because of a side step.

"I see I have seriously underestimated you." Ryuu jumped a swift kick from his competitor only to receive a punch to the right cheek. Also a knock down flat on his back.

Ryuu was now beginning to match Knuckles in anger; it was time to quit playing around. As Knuckles loomed over Ryuu, the dark hedgehog crossed his fist over his chest and made a sweeping motion at Knuckles. An invisible force, much like strong winds, throw Knuckles back against the altar base.

"Come on Guardian, lets fight."

Before Knuckles could raise himself, Ryuu was standing over him delivering several kicks. Striking back Knuckles twisted his leg over as far as possible booting Ryuu's feet from under him. The hedgehog fell to the ground, but Knuckles' little victory was rewarded with only an increasing pain in the side.

Knuckles laid quivering. The pain was paralyzing and it took all of the guardian's strength not to cry out. He couldn't let Ryuu win. He had to fight, he had to...

Ryuu got to his feet and grinned down at his victim. The joy in Ryuu's eyes was just a glimpse in to the sick mind standing over Knuckles.

"I brought you down and I didn't even need plan B. Ha, some guardian you are." Ryuu didn't seem fazed by the battle at all.

...stop Ryuu no matter the cost. At the expense of his life, Ryuu would meet his match and fail.

Knuckles struggled to one knee before addressing Ryuu.

"I'm gonna kill you," Those words were hard to understand through clenched teeth. "I don't care what I must do."

"We can't have that happen." The nighted hedgehog climbed the steps of the altar to the Master Emerald. Placing a hand on the smooth surface of the stone, Ryuu looked back at Knuckles. "I need you to run the emerald."

Ryuu's plan was coming along nicely. He had managed to defeat Sonic after years of strategic plotting, waiting for the perfect weather conditions, and a chance to get the group of fighters together. Ryuu had all but three chaos emeralds, which were in Shadow's hands were they needed to be. It was the days after Christmas, the time he wished to grant himself this 'wish.'

"Soon I'll bring this planet to submission. And with your help, it will make the job all the easier."

"I'm not going to work for you. And You're Not Taking The Master Emerald!"

"To late you fool. Has it not occurred to you that I have brought you to your knees. I've won. Not only this, but I've won in all. ME!"

"No!" In one last attempt, Knuckles removed himself from his pain and ran toward Ryuu. The hedgehog slipped his hand into his pocket to raise the signals of pain, but Knuckles didn't stop. Ryuu jumped from the altar to avoid a coalition.

"I guess I do need plan B."

The robots that had been holding Rouge now emerged from their hided position, dragging Rouge behind. While Ryuu dogged several more blows from Knuckles, the echidna was slowly taking notice of the movements. Turning to see a tied and gaged bat, Knuckles drew back from the fight a bit.

"See plan B," Ryuu taunted. "I can't kill you Knuckles, but she's fair game if you don't corporate. And so will any one else if you continue to fight me after she's dead."

Knuckles meet Ryuu's eyes to give him his answer. Cold and flat...

"I don't care if you skew her gut across the island, you will not touch the Master Emerald.

_I called on my lovers,_

_But they deceived me;..._

_...See, O Lord, that I am in_

_distress;_

_My soul is troubled;_

_My heart is overturned within me,..._

_Laminations_

From there everything became a blur for Rouge. Knuckles had...

She never said she loved him, because up until he almost died, she didn't think it was love. She cared deeply for Knuckles and he...cared for his rock. Maybe this was because of the fight they had, he didn't mean what he just said.

Knuckles went on trying to fight Ryuu, but every hit on the hedgehog lead to one of the robots attacking Rouge the same way. If Knuckles tried to prevent one of the machines from hitting her, Ryuu would advance to the Master Emerald. It was like a game to Ryuu, forcing Knuckles to choose at Rouge's expense.

He was only trying to stop Ryuu from getting the emerald. She knew the effects gems had on people. She had spent a life time hunting them down. Treasuring the rarest of gems. The prizes of a life time. Knuckles was, is... could care less what happened to her.

Rouge finally took the last blow her body could handle for the day. Knuckles stopped. He stood between the altar and Rouge's motionless person. Breathing heavily; was there even a choice to be made? He had to protect the Master Emerald, not Rouge. Then why is this such a difficult dilemma.

Also winded from battling, Ryuu watched the internal struggle of Knuckles. A faint smile formed on his face. He had been watching Knuckles for about a month now. Only recently had this weakness of a possible love affaire with the bat came up. For a moment Ryuu didn't think it would work. Knuckles would be unable to let her be killed for the emerald, no matter what. Sure he let her get close, but there was no way he'd continue to beat her like this. Would he?

"She's not dead, yet. Do you give up?"

Knuckles didn't answer; didn't move.

"If you do I'll take you, the emerald, and her to my base to work my plans. Do as I say and she'll live. Fail to and she'll meet a sudden end. Do you give up?"

(A/N) I'm sorry that it took so long to update. Because of this you might want to review old chapters so not to forget anything. And YAY! This is my first 'fight' scene. I've never written anything like this before. Poor Knuckles, poor Rouge. I hope to write more before school starts, but I...didn't finish my summer homework. I don't need lectures I'll get it done. Well, good days,

Platonic

Post script- Lacey you're right. I don't support opposite sex cohabitation. Everyone who is, you're putting yourself in a bad situration. In Sonic Battle I hear Rouge offers Shadow to stay with her for a while. And though Near is not entirely based off the games(Spoiler) I'm trying to use this for the plot of this story.


	6. Chapter 6

Shadow stood quietly by letting Amy cry. He considered placing a hand on her shoulder or something to let her know he was there, but he couldn't. So he just stood.

Amy wept, tears slowing only with time. Shadow watched as the weakened hedgehog took a praying position. The same way Maria had after hearing about Micah's leaving.

The salty tears ran down the clenching hands of a kneeling Maria. The news of Micah's leaving had ruined the evening and reduced Maria to crying in her room. Shadow didn't know what to say to her or how to comfort her. Not only was comfort not his best subject, but he didn't know how to relate to her pain. Before the ark incident he had never lost anyone dear to him. Maria was, sad?

Maria was sad for about an hour. Mouth slightly ajar, Shadow couldn't see Maria in every move of Amy's. Amy wasn't like Maria at all. Maria did not really love Micah, she merely had a crush on him, and now, seeing Amy, Shadow realized that what he was looking at was not just a crush but real...

"God, I don't...I don't want Sonic to die. I want him here!"

...Death is swallowed up in victory.

"I.. love him. Please don't let him be dead. I won't believe he's dead."

...but the greatest of these...

"I will not lose hope! He is not dead!"

...Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

Amy's prayer deteriorated into only tears. She could no longer speak. Perhaps it would have been best for Shadow to leave. Amy turned to the sound of Shadow's feet shuffling as he backed away from her.

Both froze as an odd silence passed between them. Shadow stared into the watery red eyes; Maria's words coming to mind.

"It's okay Shadow, I'll get over Micah."

Amy wasn't going to 'get over' Sonic that easily. Amy had come to either love Sonic, or fool her self into thinking she did, and his death was a major blow to her heart. Sonic was a dear friend. He was Shadow's 'friend.'

Shadow watched as Amy tried to force a smile, but could not. The girl got to her feet and ran into Shadow's arms. Burying her face into his soft fur, Amy wept gently. She just wanted to be held. She didn't care that it was Shadow. She didn't care how he got into her house. All she knew was someone was there to hold her. Someone was there.

Shadow was completely taken back by Amy's behavior. He never would have expected her to do this to 'him.' He wasn't even close to her; they had just recently come to friendly terms. Still, he couldn't push her away from him when she was like this.

Shadow looked down at the girl hugging his middle. She was slowly calming down, but not removing herself from his chest. Not sure what else to do, Shadow hesitantly began to rub Amy's head. Which in turn silenced her tears altogether, only a few whimpers left.

Shadow couldn't help but feel a small smile forming on his face. Amy did have her faults, but in this moment, something seemed different. Amy had been the one to first help him realize what Maria had really wanted him to do. Amy had never done harm to him, and always wanted to include him in the ridiculous victory parties. With all considered, Amy had been treating Shadow as a friend since they had formally meet.

Amy tightly shut her eyes as she tried to hold back another flood of tears. She really hadn't meant to cry all over Shadow. Little did she know that he was actually taking slight pleasure from it.

The two stood still. The world outside Amy's apartment continued at its fast pace, their time, short as it maybe, seemed to last forever. For Shadow it would. He cherished it. Maybe he even cherished, Amy. Just a little.

Shadow, leaving one hand to stroke Amy's quills, gently returned the young lady's embrace. For a split second Amy enjoyed the warmth his hug provided, but then reality sunk in; Shadow the Hedgehog was hugging her. The dark, creepy, mean guy who tried to destroy all of Mobius was hugging her!?

Amy quickly withdrew from Shadow and whipped the remaining tears from her eyes.

"Sorry," The girl turned from Shadow. "I didn't mean t-to do that. I'm just upset and, yeah." Amy gave a nervous laugh as she went back to taking down the Christmas decorations. The black hedgehog watched for a moment before trying to help. Shadow took a few of the caroling dolls and placed them in one of the empty boxes. He did what he could while Amy tolerated his presence. She didn't seem to mind his being there in the least, until Shadow caught glimpse of the decorative ceiling items. He stared at one in particular, a loranthus europaeus if his memory didn't fail him. Maria had put one over her bedroom door once. She had said she wanted to put it over Micah's desk, whatever that meant. Maria also had a different name for it.

"Leave it alone."

Shadow faced Amy. "I'll get that one later. By myself. Just stay away from it." Shadow did as he was instructed and left the plant mounted on the wall.

Once the house had been mostly rid of its Christmas adornments, Amy went to the kitchen.

"Can I make you anything for helping clean up the house." Amy addressed Shadow as he cautiously entered the kitchen. "Coffee maybe." Amy laughed lightly.

"I don't wish to take from your..."

"I'll make you breakfast again! You must be starving!" With a smile Amy set to work making hash browns and sausage. Shadow didn't fight Amy's desire to fed him. Instead he sat and watched her work. It was kind of relaxing to watch her. It felt good to be with Amy.

"Here you go, hot and ready to eat."

"Thank you." Shadow eyed the food in front of him. He wasn't very hungry, but would eat to please his anguished hostess. She had an incredible knack for cooking.

After eating in silence Amy cleaned her and Shadow's place at the table, staking as many plates and cups as possible in her arm. An awkward moment like the previous breakfast passed between them. Amy fumbled with the dishes she tried to keep from looking back at Shadow. It was rude to stare, plus his stare was creepy. He hadn't looked at her that way before...had he?

Amy suddenly dropped one of the tea cups she had been balancing; it shattered a crossed the kitchen floor.

"I'm so clumsy." The pink hedgehog set the other dishes in the sink and went to the broom closet. Shadow peered over the table at the mess on the floor. Slowly he got up and crouched next to the broken glass. Scooping as much as he could into his hand, Shadow carefully collected the pieces in his hands and discarded them in the trash. Shadow then went to the sink and got a wet rag to wipe up the remaining tea from the glass.

Amy was surprised to find the mess had been cleaned before she came back.

"Shadow did you... I guess that's a dumb question?" Why was Shadow...it didn't matter. She should be thankful he was willing to help her and that he let her cry all over him. How he got there didn't matter anymore. But this awkward silence needed to go. "Do you know how to play Candy Land?"

"No."

"I guess it would be strange if you did. How about Uno?"

Shadow went to Amy and took her hands in his. Amy's face went flush.

"I want to take you out."

Was he asking her out?! "I don't want you spending time like this." Like What! Shadow released his hold on Amy then headed for the door. "Put something warm on."

"What? Why, where are we going?"

"You were happy the other day when Cream took you to the park, I want to do the same."

Shadow wasn't trying to date her, he was...trying to make her feel better? _Why would Shadow do this for me?_ Amy decided not to ask further questions and go with Shadow. She might even enjoy what will happen.

Dressing in winter attire, Amy allowed herself to be carried by Shadow to the same skating park as yesterday. Shadow set her down outside the park gate.

"Shadow," Amy spoke up as the black hedgehog broke the lock off the gate. "The park doesn't open for another hour." Shadow looked at the sign posted next to the entrance. Sure enough the park hadn't opened. "We should come back later, it's not open yet."

"No, we're just early." Shadow pushed the gate open waving for Amy to enter.

"I blame you if we're caught." Amy added gruffly as she walked into the winter park.

The sight was beautiful. The iced over lake was smooth and untouched for the day. The light snowing that night had laid a thin layer of fresh snow; clean and unmarked. The morning sun glistened through icicles hanging from trees and stands. It truly was a winter wonderland.

Amy's eyes were wide with amazement. Living in the city she hardly ever got a chance to see untouched snow. Nor had she ever been to the park this early.

"Wow."

Shadow watched the small puff of warm air coming from Amy's mouth. She seemed to be the most captivating thing on all of Mobius. Shadow grinned at her happiness and turn to close the gate.

Splat!

Shadow had been hit. Angered, Shadow turned to face whatever it was that got him, only to receive another snow ball in his face.

"Gotcha!" Amy called running from Shadow to hide behind a group of trees. "Come on Shadow." Amy snickered. Maybe it was wrong catching him off guard; he probably didn't even know the game. Amy scooped another hand full of white powder from the ground and rounded the tree to beam Shadow. He was gone.

"Here Amy!" Two snowballs smacked the back of Amy's head. Amy quickly rounded to throw her weapon just in time to see Shadow disappear. He was cheating, he was using chaos control.

"You have to stay where I can see you cheater!" Amy waited for a response from Shadow. None came. "There has to be an unwritten rule about stuff like this."

Amy packed another handful of snow together and began her search for Shadow. He wouldn't have gone to far, he must still be in the area. The benches would make for a good hiding spot. They had four large bushes planted near them. Shadow would probably be getting more snow from there. The pink hedgehog tip-toed over to the wooden benches. Amy placed a hand between two branches then yanked back the plant. He wasn't there.

"Heads!" Shadows voice could be heard above. He had perched himself in an oka tree and had just shaken a snow laden branch. The load of snow buried the unsuspecting hedgie below.

Shadow gave a small smile as he dropped from the tree. She wasn't a very decent opponent. Yet, this fight seemed to remind Shadow of the pillow fights he use to have with Maria. Always a 'fun' waste of time. No one was really hurt.

The snow started shifting as Amy's hammer emerged from the powder.

What was meant by ' no one was really hurt,' was that no one ever played that game with Amy.

"So you want to play dirty," Amy's temperature alone got her out of the snow pile.

"Isn't that what we're suppose to do in this game?"

"I'll show you what we do in this game."

Using her hammer as a snow bat, Amy pelted Shadow with hundreds of snow balls til he was just as covered as she had been.

"Ha! Take that!" Amy laughed at her victory. Shadow wasn't about to let Amy win like that. The two spent a better of the hour fighting pointlessly. The insults flew with the snow and so did a slight bit of something else. Finally tiering, Amy sought a bench to relax on.

"Time out Shadow." The girl heaved as Shadow came near the bench.

"Tiered of losing?"

"No, just catching my breath, so I can launch another one your way." Amy pulled her sneak attack from behind her back. The last snow ball of the day smacked right into Shadow's face.

Shadow shook the remaining snow from his face before seating himself next to Amy.

"Guess you win."

"Yep, but not a bad fight, Shadow."

Amy rested her back against the bench and closed her eyes. She had never realized how mush fun Shadow could be. She always imagined him as being too anguishes or a loner. Shadow was...interesting.

And very, very close.

Amy snapped her eyes open to see Shadow was now staring intently at her...

"Uh..." What was she suppose to say? Shadow was seemingly inching closer to her.

Suddenly a noise in front of them caught both their attention. Before them a small flicky was flapping helplessly in the snow. It had fallen from the tree above and seem to have broken its wing.

"Aww, Shadow look."

Not that he hadn't already noticed, Shadow watched Amy kneel next to the bird and gently rub its back. "I think it's hurt. We have to help it." Shadow raised an eyebrow. After animals got hurt they never usually returned to full working order. The bird was better off dead. But for Amy he could try to say something comforting.

"Amy," The black hedgehog stood over the girl. "I think the bird will be okay, if we take it out back, and break its neck."

He must have said something wrong. The look Amy gave him was some kind of mix between disturbed and sick. "I think that would be best."

"No, no, no! Get away from the bird!" Amy scooped the frightened flicky into her coat and headed for the gate. "I'm going to take her home til she gets well. That, I think would be the best choice."

Shadow stood behind as Amy walked out of the park. He had just ruined a nearly perfect morning. Great.

(A/N) Sorry for any mistakes in this chapter. I'm also sorry it took so long to update. I am beyond busy. I have stepped into the realm of perpetual time consumption. Everyone I know seems to want a piece of my time. I will try to update more often...yeah.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Shadow decided not to follow Amy home. He would get back to Rouge's apartment and hopefully get another cup of coffee.

Shadow spent most of his afternoon napping or snacking a little. He was waiting for Rouge to get back and give her report on the day. Perhaps her's was turning out better. The black hedgehog sat at the kitchen table. There wasn't anything to really think about. He had ruined his day with Amy...well maybe not ruined. He still didn't know how Amy felt about it.

"I shouldn't have suggested that."

It was the best course of action, right? Amy was such a caring and lovely person. She was never too hurt to help somebody else, even as she grieved for Sonic's death.

Shadow wanted to kill the bird, Shadow wanted death, the last thing Amy Rose wanted to consider. He really had blown it.

"Why does it even matter?" Irately the hedgehog spoke. He didn't want to feel this way. He didn't want to like Amy. He wanted to...to...

"I do not love her, I don't know her."

Truth was, he had gotten to know her. He had gotten to know everyone over the course of that year. He was even close to Tails and Cream now. He never did too much with them, but he invested time to fight with them and plan strategies against Eggman. No matter what he said, the fact remained. He had also watched them. He knew the things they liked, the people they loved, and the experiences they had.

Ring

Shadow was jostled from his thoughts by the phone.

Ring

Shadow reached over to pick up the receiver, but thought the better of it.

"It's probably for Rouge."

_Or it's Amy. _

"She always gets mad when I answer her calls."

_She's calling wondering what happened at the park. Why didn't I walk her home._

"I'll leave it."

And so Shadow did, fourteen times. The entire afternoon was filled with the consent ringing of the phone. But Shadow didn't love Amy and wasn't going to answer her calls...which aren't her calls but rather someone trying to get in touch with Rouge, really, really badly. Yeah.

DingDong

By six, Shadow heard a familiar voice calling from the door.

"Shadow! It's me, Amy! Are you here? Rouge, are you home? Shadow!"

The phone he could handle, but it was a bit harder to ignore Amy at the door. He couldn't just leave her out there knocking.

"Yes I can,"

Unfortunately for the hedgehog in denial, he couldn't seem to bring himself to leaving her there. Shadow went to the door and opened it on Amy.

"About time you answered." Amy wasn't mad. "Well, are you going to invite me in or am I going to stand in this hallway forever?" Amy allowed herself in as Shadow stepped back.

She wasn't going to hold his rude comment against him, considering the vets offer of euthanasia was no better. She also still wanted to say good-bye to Shadow properly.

"I tried calling you," Amy sat on the couch. "Why didn't you answer?"

Shadow didn't respond.

"I thought that maybe you got hurt or something and didn't return home. I decided to come over after the sixth time calling."

"You only called six times?"

o

o

_Do you give up?_

Rouge closed her cell phone. She laid out on her back across a cot in a foreign room. Ryuu must have bought her here while she had been passed out. The walls had a slight curve to them; most likely was a one way mirror of some kind. Ryuu could see in, but she couldn't see out.

Rouge made an effort to sit up but the wounds and bruises she received that morning forced her back down. How could she have let Ryuu catch her? Rouge, the world's greatest treasure hunter and spy, caught in one of the most primitive of devices.

The bat's head began to throb. She had a massive headache and was feeling sick.

"Just kill me now." Rouge groaned as again she tried to redial the house. She was hoping that Shadow would have returned to the apartment. Maybe he would be able to save both her and Knuckles, but so far, no such luck, and she didn't have any other capable person to call. Amy couldn't fight Ryuu and neither could Tails.

This would be her ninth time calling. However, before Rouge could press the last number the door into the room opened.

"I surly would have guessed you would have reached someone by now." Ryuu stepped into the fairly empty room. He crossed over to the cot and snatched the phone from Rouge's hand.

"But I can only give you so long to call before I'll have to invite them myself. Have to keep on schedule."

Ryuu held the phone up and read the name. "Home," A smirk. "I didn't know you had friends living with you." Ryuu tossed the phone onto the cot next to Rouge. "Keep calling, perhaps you will reach your family." Ryuu stood a moment longer. With her stare alone Rouge lashed out at the hedgehog before her.

Ryuu headed toward an opening in the wall. Stepping through, the wall materialized behind him closing off the room.

The hedgehog stood outside the room for a moment. No emotion played out on his face, but his mind wheedled around millions of questions and probabilities.

Using manipulation alone, Ryuu had succeeded in fooling Eggman into basically handing over his fleets of robots and scientific studies to him. He had established his central headquarters in a place Sonic and his friends were unable to locate; G.U.N. also unaware of its existence. Everything he was planning was coming to fruition. There were no bumps in the road or enemies he could not handle. As of where he stood, he had won.

Ryuu gazed around him. His base was a large open circular lobby with several wall doors like the one leading to Rouge. He had main computers and surveillance stationed in the center of the base. He nearly had everything, but the world.

A wave of frustration came over Ryuu. This wasn't what he wanted!

"I Want..gah!" Ryuu sent electrical pulses, much like chaos spear, flying across the substructure.

He didn't know what he wanted, but he was sure it wasn't this.

Ryuu breathed heavily. He was a miserable being. His existence seemed so meaningless at this point.

_I can't be thinking like this or I'll lose it all._

The depraved hedgie straightened out his coat and took a cleansing breath. He would get what he wanted, he had to keep focused til then, or he would lose all he's worked for.

Ryuu shook the thoughts out of his mind and summoned robots to clean the electrical mess he had caused. He then made his way to the cell containing Knuckles. Placing a hand on a pad near the wall door, Ryuu opened the wall to speak with Knuckles.

The holding cell for Knuckles was different than Rouge's. The entire room was encased with Diamond Glass; a substance combining pure carbon into the melting process of glass.

Hearing Ryuu enter the cell Knuckles looked up from his cot.

"How dare you come in here!" The echidna quickly got to his feet and attempted to rush at the offending hedgehog. Before he could do so, however, Ryuu slipped his hand into his pocket and administered another shock of pain through Knuckles' side.

"Calm down guardian," Ryuu preceded to the fallen echidna. "We need to talk about our future."

"I've already told you, I'm not helping you destroy Mobius."

"You are."

"I've given you the Emerald, let us go."

"So you can come back later and fight me for it," Ryuu lowered himself to the floor to sit next to Knuckles. "As much as I love beating you echidna, I haven't the time to play such painful games anymore." Knuckles snorted at Ryuu. He was too hurt to do anything else.

"Tell me Knuckles, how does it feel to know that you surrendered the Master Emerald over to me to save someone who isn't even part of your tribe."

Knuckles closed his eyes in shame. Ryuu gave a small laugh. "You will harness its power for me or I will kill her."

At this Knuckles felt his strength return. The echidna punched up for the hedgehog and knocked him to the ground. Knuckles climbed on top of Ryuu and took a firm grip around his neck.

"Hurt one hair on her head, and not only will I harness power, but I will use it and all the power within me to ripe your head off!"

Knuckles had a fire in him that Ryuu never counted on. Knuckles' endurance, devotion, and sheer will was more than the hedgehog wanted to deal with. Still, this was the guardian; the only one who could control the Master Emerald.

The door to the room opened again as a small team of robots filled the room. Each took hold of Knuckles and pried him away from Ryuu. The robots detained Knuckles for the remainder of the conversation.

"I am expecting Shadow's company early tomorrow,"

"Leave him alone."

"He has three chaos emeralds and I have the other four."

Knuckles made another attempt to attack Ryuu, but was beaten and pained by his side.

"Listen to me echidna because I'm running out of patience. Tomorrow Shadow will come. I need you to pull all the energy from the chaos emeralds into the Master. Can you do that?"

No answer.

"I'll assume you can. If not, it will cost Rouge her life. After that, expect Dr. Robotnik to take over, you will be sent back here til I need you. Understood?" Knuckles watched as Ryuu left.

Again Knuckles had let everyone down. Because of him Sonic was probably hanging somewhere as a dead trophy and now Shadow would be joining him. Ryuu had the power of the Master Emerald and would be able to control all chaos energy with it. The energy in its purest form would surely be strong enough to kill Shadow. Worst of all, Knuckles was helping him do it. And for what?

Back at Rouge's apartment Shadow and Amy waited for the phone to ring again; Shadow had explained to Amy in the meantime.

"Do you think the calls all came from the same person?" Amy asked as she dragged a kitchen chair up to the phone.

"I have a good feeling it was." Shadow stood patiently by Amy who shot a curious glance at the black hedgehog. He never usually gave longer than one word answers at times like these. The suspense normally made Shadow more quiet. He looked very deep in though. His eyes were closed and he was standing as usual with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Do you think it might be Rouge?"

"That seems logical considering she was suppose to be back by now."

Amy smiled. It was good to know that Shadow had befriended Rouge as well as her. He almost acted like a brother would if his sister stayed out late. It was the tender side of Shadow that not too many get to see very often. It was kind of cute.

"You're such a... a boogle." Amy laughed out loud when she said the word. Shadow raised an eyebrow as he looked upon the giggling girl.

"A what?!"

"A boogle!"

"Do I want to know what that is?"

More laughter erupted from the pink hedgehog. Between giggles and gasps for air she answered.

"It's when someone is as cute as you Shadow."

Shadow became somewhat offended; he wasn't cute. His stun look reflected his thoughts. Amy's laughing subsided a bit. "It's because your lovable and sweet, even though you try to hide it, and that you show your affections in subtle ways." He still didn't understand. Amy went on.

"When I was little, a group of kids and I made up the word. We would always use it affectionately and then cat each other. We'd usually say it to Larry because he acted so silly." The memory made Amy lighthearted. She loved thinking back to when things were simple; times before Sonic's death. Her happy moment soon passed as she thought about the blue hedgehog.

Shadow noticed the change in her character. She was thinking about him again.

"Could you show me?"

Amy was jerked from her thoughts at Shadow's voice.

"Could I, what?"

"Could you show me how you... cat people?" Shadow knew it was a sad attempt to keep her mind off Sonic, but he didn't want her to feel that way. He like it when she smiled.

Before Shadow could even register what Amy was about to do, he found himself falling to the floor. Amy was tickling the hedgehog's sides and was rendering him helpless.

Amy laughed as she attacked the hedgehog. She wasn't catting him in the playful fashion of a kitten, but she was having just as much fun. Plus seeing the rear smile on Shadow's face was well worth the effort. Amy then began to wonder if she had ever seen Shadow laugh before. He looked so odd with a smile; almost friendlier and more approachable. His deep voice also took on a cheerier tone; raised just a bit in pitch. In all aspects Shadow seemed child like.

Amy finally stopped her assault at Shadow's command. Breathing heavy the male hedgehog began to speak.

"I haven't laughed like that since Maria and I use to play."

Both hedgehogs were taken back by this statement. Had Shadow just talked about Maria with another person? And with mirth?

Amy knew Shadow would never have done that with anyone else. It was because it was her he was talking to. He felt more open with her. They had only gotten to really know each other over the past few days, and already he felt close enough to her to share that about Maria. Perhaps she could do the same.

" I use to do stuff like that with Sonic,"

Amy rose and went to the couch. "Just recently have we gotten closer together."

Shadow watched the tears form in Amy's eyes. Her pain was so fresh and real; Sonic had only been dead for a month. Maria has been gone for years. "We would race, play games, fight Eggman. We did lots of things together."

Amy tried to fight back the tears. She closed her eyes, but she knew they would still seep through. Either way, she felt it was time to express how she felt.

"I loved Sonic. He was always there for me, and even though he never admitted it, I knew he liked me too. I don't want him to be dead, I want him here, now! I loved him, please, I loved him."

Amy began to weep into her hands as she sensed Shadow join her on the couch. Suddenly Amy felt herself being pulled into a hug. Forcing her eyes open, Shadow was holding her...He was...

One tears fell from the black hedgehog's eye. He didn't want Maria to be dead. He had loved her like a mother, and she didn't deserve to die.

Shadow was warm, and somehow safe. Amy was safe. She rested her head against his chest and let herself cry. Shadow didn't mind; he wanted this no other way. No more Maria complex; he had Amy. He wanted to fall in love again; he wanted to fall in love with her. He would wait as long as it took. He loved her.

As Amy stopped sobbing, she allowed Shadow to stroke her quills. She listened to his heartbeat and enjoyed the rise and fall of his breathing. It felt so good to be there, and for Shadow it felt so good to be touched affectionately.

Shadow laid back against the arm of the sofa and lowered Amy onto his chest. She was so warm. Shadow took in her sweet smell and closed his eyes. Softly, the black hedgehog planted a tender kiss on the girl's forehead.

Amy's eyes sprang open. Had Shadow just kissed her?!

Ring

Both hedgehog's jumped at the sound of the phone. Amy wasted no time climbing off of Shadow and rushing to the phone.

Ring

Amy answered winded with shock.

"Hello"

"Shadow?" It was Rouge's voice. She was in pain and sounded panicked. "Shadow is it you?" Amy handed the phone over to Shadow.

"Hello."

"Shadow Ryuu has me."

"What!"

Amy watched as Shadow went from worried to angered. He slammed down the phone and without a second thought, dashed out the door.Amy stood with her mouth slightly ajar and just as confused as she could be. _What just happened here?_

From the call, Shadow knew right where he needed to go. He recognized the place Rouge vaguely described as one of Eggman's older bases.

As Shadow headed for the base, Ryuu raced to set everything up for the next morning. Everything had to go as planned. When messing with the ultimate life form a minor error might lead to complete destruction.

Ryuu had the computer at the center of the base removed and the wall doors sealed and locked. Knuckles' room was the only exception. Ryuu then began to practice several attack moves he would use on Shadow. He had perfected Chaos Control and even Chaos Spear, but Shadow still could Chaos Blast and ruin everything.

"Not everything," Ryuu waved over three robots whom all began to mop and clean up the room. "The Master Emerald should prove rather useful now."

Exiting the building, Ryuu took a back way up to a second story of his base. This room was also open and unlocked by Ryuu's touch. Inside would be the Master Emerald and a computer screen displaying the events of the main base. Upon entering, Ryuu addressed a figure hunched in the shadows of the room.

"I'll have Knuckles brought to you around four. Explain to him when I want him to draw the power from the emeralds. If he refuses, press that button on the far wall."

Stepping out into the center of the room, Eggman faced the traitor that took his dream of world conquest.

"Why?" Hatred dripped off Eggman's words like venom.

"You don't need to know the purpose of that button."

"I don't care about that button. Give me one good reason why I should listen to you? I've already lost everything."

"Because I'll take your life with it."

Eggman stepped closer to the hedgehog.

"You already have."

Ryuu smiled and, try as he might to hold back, let out a laugh.

"I know you better than that Robotnik. You haven't the guts to risk your life like that."

As much as it pained his ego, Eggman knew Ryuu was right; he didn't want to lose his life. But he didn't want to lose his dream either.

Eggman went and sat back down, Ryuu left, and just as promised, Knuckles was escorted in at four in the morning.

The echidna was in bad shape. He hadn't been feed or given water and he couldn't bring himself to sleep that night. Knuckles didn't even care to give Eggman the usual glare the doctor had become accustomed to.

"So tell me Eggman, what are you getting out of this?" Knuckles' question was genuine. Eggman ignored it.

"Shadow is expected to arrive in about two hours."

"I don't care about that, Eggman. I want you to help me escape."

"He and Ryuu will battle for approximately twenty minuets before Shadow will try to use Chaos Blast."

Eggman pointed to the monitor to explain the battle scene. Knuckles, trying to hold back his temper, asked again.

"Eggman I know you could get us out of here. Why don't you help me?"

The doctor rubbed his temples and looked at Knuckles.

"Like a fool I handed my bases and weapons to Ryuu in hopes that he would help me take over. Then I was planning to double-cross him, taking his half as well as mine. He beat me to it. Ryuu has everything I once possessed, I have nothing to fight back with. And don't think I haven't tried to get out of here, same as you I suppose. It seems he has you in the same boat, too, Knuckles."

The echidna looked at the Master Emerald, the computer screen, his options.

"What does Ryuu need the Master Emerald for?" Knuckles went to the doctor.

"He wants you to drain the power of the chaos emeralds as Shadow prepares to cause chaos blast."

"Why?"

"Aren't we full of questions."

"Just Answer!"

"Fine. The effects of pulling the power from Shadow as he is trying to use them will temporarily shock his system. Being I, with the help of my ingenious inventions, can use the power from both the chaos and master emeralds, I can turn the blast back on Shadow."

Knuckles thought about the situation for a moment. Why would Ryuu need the Master Emerald to hurt Shadow if he could do it himself? Odds are that Ryuu couldn't stop Shadow without chaos energy. If Knuckles never pulls the power, Ryuu might lose the fight.

"Then I'm not doin' as he says."

"He did instruct me to take action if you refuse."

Knuckles brought his focus to Eggman. "What?"

Eggman signaled to the button on the far wall. "What does it do?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure. All I know is that I'll have to pay whatever penalty you will receive if I don't press it."

It was to hurt Rouge. Some how Knuckles just knew it was.

"Do you think chaos blast would be enough to kill Ryuu?" The echidna was hopeful.

"No." It was the shortest answer Dr. Eggman had probably ever given.

"How could he be strong enough to handle that?!" Knuckles punched the wall in frustration. Why was this turning out to be so hard. Ryuu was just one hedgehog, how could he alone take down Sonic and everyone else? Even with hundreds of robots and machine, Eggman was unable to harm the group as much as Ryuu had. There was no way Ryuu could be this powerful. "Shadow can take him out, I know it."

"Don't be too sure about your friend, Knuckles. Ryuu's no fool." Eggman's tone was serious. " He has a back up plan incase you don't drain the power." Silence. Ryuu really had beaten them.

"Can Shadow live through it?"

That morning, a thin fog surrounded the base Shadow had finally arrived at. Ryuu was expecting him, he knew this. But nothing was going to stop him from getting rid of Ryuu.

The entrance to the base lead partly underground to the substructure. The doors were open and a welcome mat laid out. The building itself was only two stories high and windowless.

The front entryway was obviously leading to a trap, but most like was any entrance to the base.

"Then I'll just make my own."

Using chaos spear, Shadow blew a hole through the wall a few yards from the main doors. He stood on the thresh hold of the lobby. Shadow gave the room a once over. No one was there; it was just an empty room.

The black hedgehog slowly stepped through his made room access; the wall materialized behind him. Shadow glared over his shoulder there upon he felt the presence of someone behind him.

Shadow wheeled around expecting to block a blow from Ryuu, but receiving instead something being forced into his mouth.

Without hesitation Shadow spat the object out at the feet of Ryuu; standing emotionless. Shadow was just about to grab the hedgehog before him, when the taste of the object sank in. Chocolate... Maria's chocolate...?

o

o

(A/N) YAY! I think I only need one more chapter to sum up this story. Thank you all for reading. If you are confused about anything, I suggest going back and reviewing. I know I had to. Good days, and for those who celebrate, I hope you had a good Thanksgiving.


	8. Chapter 8

Their eyes met for a moment.

After delivering his gifts, Shadow left the room to catch up with Maria. The room was still and roughly silent. In less then a hour the painful tests would start again, and Christmas would be over for all the experiments.

The poking and cutting of their flesh, the lose of blood, the endless routine of anguish. And for what? To perfect Project Shadow? A living life form they had created through their suffering that didn't even care for them. Only once would the so called 'ultimate life form' atone for the pain he had put them through. A small, bitter piece of chocolate.

_o_

Shadow glared at Ryuu. The evil hedgehog stood before him without the slightest hint of fear. At that moment Shadow knew who was standing before him.

Ryuu glanced at the cameras then turned his attention to Shadow.

"Merry Christmas, Shadow."

Both hedgehog began to circle each other as customary in most fights. The last once over of the opponent before a winner-takes-all battle, literary. One of them was not coming out of this fight alive.

Ryuu had been one of the experimental animals that lead up to Shadow's development. Shadow recognized him. How he was still alive was beyond Shadow's reasoning. Logically the G.U.N. soldiers would have destroyed as many of the experiments as possible. Even if he were spared the death sentence, his age would roughly be around sixty. The Ryuu before Shadow now was only about twenty. How could he...?

Shadow was not left to think for too much longer, Ryuu launched his first attack; several rounds of chaos spear.

Ryuu stood facing the mangled wall which quickly mended itself. Shadow had moved.

The ultimate life form knew better than to try and fight fire with fire here. Ryuu may not look like too much of a challenge, but the fact that he killed Sonic in one fight was enough to deter Shadow from a frontal attack. So the black hedgehog used one of Sonic's favorite games.

"Come on Ryuu!" Shadow taunted as he skated up and around the walls of the room. "Surely your faster than that!" Ryuu responded with trying to strike Shadow with chaos spear. Large holes were created in the walls by his power, but all of them quickly reassembled. Shadow couldn't help looking back sometimes to view the contents of the rooms. Perhaps something of use would be in one.

For a few more seconds Ryuu played along in the 'game', but he quickly became annoyed. The chaos spear stopped being sent after Shadow. Ryuu still looked calm. He never lost his appearance of being in control of the fight. This unnerved Shadow a bit. Was Ryuu being over-confident, or did he really have this fight mapped out like he had the one with Sonic?

Outside a light snow began to fall. Amy stood outside Ryuu's base. She tightly gripped her coat; the sight of the place was colder than the air around her.

Taking rail as far as she could, Amy had followed the skate marks Shadow had left in the snow. She ran as long as she could, even through the night hours. She knew Shadow left on account of Ryuu. Something was wrong. Amy was nearly frozen from head to toe, but she felt she needed to keep an eye on Shadow. If anything went amiss, she wanted to be there to do what she could. Til then she would stay out of the way.

Amy smacked her gloved hands together to warm them a bit. She then quickly removed one hand from its covering to pull her cell phone from her pocket. Being she was miles from the warmth of the city, Amy's fingers could almost barely dial Tails' number. Her hands were stiffening up. Finally She reached him.

"Tails," She shivered. "I've found Ryuu's base."

_o_

Shadow had exhausted every avoid tactic in the book. Ryuu was on to every move, every side step, every dodge, and every running trick Shadow could think of. And Ryuu didn't even show any weakening in his chaos energy. The dark hedgehog seemed to endlessly be able to fire attack after attack on Shadow.

_So much for using brain power._ Shadow sent a shot of chaos spear at Ryuu, catching the offending hedgie a bit off guard. Still, a quick, small smile flashed across Ryuu's face. This made Shadow suspicious. Why was Ryuu happy he got hit?

At this moment Shadow decided to use physical attacks instead of chaotic ones. Ryuu was going to try and use chaos against him, but how?

The punches and kicks got under way as the endless questions and suspicion ran through Shadow's head.

_Even when I'm close enough, Ryuu still uses chaos spear instead of a regular form of attack. Ryuu's not running out of energy either, and is even trying to get me to use my powers. But surely Ryuu must know I'm the ultimate life form. If I truly desired to, I could chaos blast Ryuu into the after life. Why would Ryuu play such a risky game? What's the angle?_

As Shadow took another hit that flung him into a nearby wall, the reason for Shadow's coming came to mind. Rouge was here! The only place Rouge went was to Knuckles' island and thus to the master emerald. Ryuu has the master emerald! What could he do with the master emerald?!

Shadow quickly got to his feet from his fall.

"So what are your plans with the master emerald?"

Shadow's question stunned Ryuu. He never thought for a moment Shadow would know he had the emerald. This was not the way his plan was suppose to come out. Regardless he would have to make it appear as if all the cards were still in his hand. Shadow couldn't be given an ounce of reassurance for a victory. Self-assurance can sway a battle.

"You'll find out in good time," Ryuu raised both hands into the air summoning more energy. "For now we fight."

Through the lense of the cameras, Knuckles and Eggman watched as Shadow fought with Ryuu. Agitation presented on Knuckles' face. Every minute he spent trapped in that upper room, the more he wanted to kill Ryuu, even at the expense of his own life.

"Can Shadow live through it?" Knuckles asked still watching the monitor.

"Through chaos blast once I turn it on him?"

"What else do you think I'm asking!"

Eggman grunted at the echidna.

"No need to be so rude. I'm not to happy about our situation either."

Knuckles' temper was rising. He had taken enough wise cracks and abuse for one day and was ready to pop.

"Just. Answer. My. Question."

"Shadow wouldn't even need to be hit with the reverb. The use of chaos blast would already have drained him of his chaotic energy. Though I know he would live through it."

Not too satisfied with the answer Knuckles began to way the options given him.

He could chose to follow Ryuu's orders and pray that Shadow would still be able to fight. Perhaps he could even find a way out and help. But if Shadow was incapacitated, whatever evil plan Ryuu had for Mobius would be fulfilled.

Or he could refuse to pull the power. Chaos blast would still be powerful enough to hurt Ryuu, and give Knuckles the opportunity to escape and help. The consequence being that Rouge would suffer and possibly he and Eggman if Ryuu had rigged some form of punishment in the upper room. But if Ryuu didn't die, Shadow would be drained; he couldn't do too much else to hurt Ryuu. But this still seemed to be the best course of action.

Eggman could see the gears spinning in Knuckles' head. The doctor frowned as he spoke up.

"If we don't stop Shadow from performing chaos blast, us, and everything in a five mile radius, will be destroyed."

Knuckles came out of his thoughts. Eggman continued.

"If Ryuu has a way of living through chaos blast, you, I and Rouge will die here. Even if Shadow isn't drained of all his chaotic power, he wouldn't have allies to turn to for help; and Ryuu could still possibly be stronger. His energy isn't running out."

Knuckles added nothing to Eggman's speech. "I'm leaving this entire matter up to you, Knuckles...Ryuu really has thought out every possibility."

Knuckles' mind slowly drifted to Rouge. He tried to shake her from his thoughts. He had more urgent things to think about...but somehow she kept coming into focus. If she were well she could bust them out. She always had a knack for slipping out of tight places.

As Knuckles looked at the master emerald, the monitors, and the possible fate of Mobius, he couldn't help but wish Rouge was there with him. He wondered if she was okay. He allowed her to be put through a lot. A lot that he regretted.

A bright flash on the screen caught the echidna's attention.

Shadow had launched another chaos attack. Ryuu was stepping up his game. The dark hedgehog was also seeming to become impatient. The twenty minute limit Ryuu had set for his battle with Shadow had long been passed. Shadow too was becoming annoyed. He knew he wasn't suppose to use his powers, but this fight was getting anconeus. He wanted so much for Ryuu to die or something to that equivalence.

Shadow was suddenly taken by surprise as Ryuu sent the largest amount of energy that battle at him. Shadow ran from the energy, but was sent flying back by its power. The mass of power left a decent size hole in the wall which the computers were having a hard time mending. As Shadow looked up he could see into the room.

At that moment everything, the base, Ryuu, everything faded out of mind for Shadow. All he could remember...Amy's prayer...

"God, I don't...I don't want Sonic to die. I want him here! I.. love him. Please don't let him be dead. I won't believe he's dead. I will not lose hope! He is not dead!"

Sonic was in that room, alive. He was badly beaten and appeared to have fetters on his feet...but he was alive.

Shadow's heart sank.

Sonic was what Amy wanted more than anything. Shadow should be happy to see Sonic. This meant he wasn't dead, just taken as a trophy. This was a ...good thing.

Amy could have her Sonic. So why wasn't he running to save him?

The wall finally did mend, taking Sonic out of Shadow's view. Shadow couldn't even remember the expression on the blue hedgehog's face. All he could think of was the inevitable loss. Still, Sonic was what Amy wanted and there was no way Ryuu was going to hurt her like that again. Or Him.

If Shadow could position himself near enough to the wall Sonic was behind, he could use chaos blast on Ryuu. There was no way that malicious hedgehog would be able to survive chaos blast, right?

But what about Rouge? And Knuckles was likely in the base as well. Perhaps if he didn't give off too much energy, they would be able to live through the blast. And if they didn't... either way, Ryuu had to go down. Now.

Amy had been waiting for what seemed like hours. She could hardly shiver any more; she was so cold. The frozen hedgehog watched her breath like clouds of smoke rise from her mouth. She was having a harder time breathing. The snow fall was also increasing making it harder for her to see the base.

"Come on Tails," Amy began to pace in a circle. "You should have been here by now."

Walking warmed her legs a little, but she still felt cold. Almost like the blood in her veins had stopped.

Amy's teeth began to chatter and she could tell her lips were turning blue. She needed to find shelter. She would get frostbite if she didn't, and judging by the numbness of her fingers and toes, that wouldn't take too long.

The pink one headed into the woods that surrounded the base. She went in only a few yards; she could still see the beckon light on top of the base. Her feet left long trails in the snow as puffs of white powder flew up from her foot falls. The forest was a beautiful sight covered in snow. She had not notice when she was traveling at night; perhaps she was too concentrated on Shadow's prints. If she wasn't currently freezing half to death, she would have stood and admired the great scene around her.

Amy came to a mound of snow that had a flat rock jettisoning out on the other side. Amy crawled under the rock using it as a roof, and the mound as a wall. Just keeping the snow and wind off made her feel warmer. She couldn't see the beckon from here, but it wasn't like she could do anything without Tails.

Where was that fox boy anyway? She had called him well over forty minutes ago. Who knew what kinds of things could be happening to Shadow. He might really need help.

Amy beat her gloved hands again to warm them. She was going to try and call Tails again. Maybe he misunderstood the urgency of the moment.

Before Amy could remove her gloves, a strong wind swept by. The trees all swayed and the snow was ripped from their branches. The mound Amy was behind also gave way, forcing Amy to scramble away from it before it collapsed.

"What happened!?"

Amy looked back in the direction of the base. A bright light was eliminating the forest. It was so bright that Amy had to shield her eyes. All the snow that had collected on the ground quickly melted as a heated gust rushed passed. Even the falling snow turned into rain.

After the light subsided, Amy stood in awe, not believing her eyes.

"Oh my, Shadow!" Amy shed her coat and made a dash back for the base. The puddles of former snow splashed up on the girl. It was still unbearably cold water, ankle deep, and was slowly becoming ice. The heat wave had passed. Those few yards she had traveled felt like miles.

Amy didn't stop her run, not even when she saw the base. A large hole had been made in the side of the building. The computers were unable to mend it, but non of this seemed to bother Ryuu. Amy took full liberty and entered the base. She stopped at what she saw.

Shadow was passed out on the floor and he looked hurt. Ryuu was laughing. A central computer system then lowered from the ceiling and Ryuu made hast to the controls. Quickly he set to work typing in passwords and setting up the next stage of his plan.

Not sure what she should do Amy stepped back out of the base. She peeked in from around the wall. All the security must have been off line from whatever caused the hole in the wall. This might be the perfect opportunity to find out what Ryuu was up to. Amy could only hope Shadow was all right.

As Ryuu worked, blueprints and satellite images of the Ark appeared on the screen. A text box popped up next to the pictures as Ryuu typed codes and commands. Amy couldn't read a single word. It was all a foreign language to her.

"Why can't people use the king's English?" Amy cursed softly.

"That is English, Amy."

The pink hedgehog was startled by the sudden voice behind her. She jumped and turned to face the sound. It was Tails.

"Why do you have to sneak up on me like that!"

"Shh, he'll hear you."

The two tailed fox peered around the wall and silently read and explained what was being typed.

"It would seem that Ryuu is sending commands to space colony Ark. He's trying to send a mass amount of power up there for some reason."

Amy peeped around to see Shadow. He still had not moved from the ground. Amy turned to see Tails running back for the forest. Amy followed knowing he was heading back to his plane.

Once there Tails opened some of his scanning equipment.

"On my way over here I picked up a strong signal from the chaos emeralds," Tails started up the equipment. "It looked like all seven were here and maybe even the mater emerald."

"I bet the master emerald is here," Amy climbed up into the plane to watch Tails. "Rouge had called Shadow and I at the her apartment. If she's here, odds are Knuckles is too."

" And why would Rouge's being here imply that Knuckles is here."

"Just a guess."

Tails read over his scanners.

"Ryuu maybe using the master emerald to stabilize the chaos energy, that way he could control its use on the Ark."

"What do we do?"

"I..I don't really know. Sonic was the one who..." Tails caught himself in mid sentence. He knew better than to speak about Sonic in front of Amy. She was still hurting terribly from his death, and so was he.

"Well Sonic's not here," Amy's expression was cold, her voice flat. "So what are _we_ going to do about it?"

A determined look replaced Tails' fearful one.

"We're going to pay Ryuu back for what he did." Tails began to think. "Perhaps we could hack into the main computer system and shut down the transfer of information. We might be able to turn the power back on the system."

"We could fry the computer!" Amy smiled.

" Whatever we do we can't let Ryuu finish this command. We have to act fast."

The idea then struck Amy.

"What if I distract him, would that give you time to destroy the system?"

"I'm not too good at hacking, but I'll try."

"Rouge is in there if you can find her, she could help you. I just hope she's not hurt."

"I need you to keep him away from that computer. Go Now!"

Amy leaped from the plane, grabbed a rock from the ground and took off for the hole. She didn't know exactly what she was going to do, but she had to do something. Maybe she would be able to talk him down or brake the computer so he wouldn't be able to finish the data transfer.

"Keep him busy as long as you can!" Tails called after Amy. He hoped his call wasn't too loud. The young fox then reached under his seat for a small hand computer. Having Rouge would be a big help, but there was no way to find her in time; nor guarantee she would be able to help. He would have to do this alone.

Inside, Ryyu was finishing up his final orders when Amy ran in. The sound of Amy's stomping caught Ryuu's attention immediately.

"Hold it right there, Ryuu!"

Ryuu raised an eyebrow.

"Why do people say that, it doesn't make the person stop."

"Well..uh. It got you to turn around!" Amy quickly threw the rock toward the computer. Unfortunately Ryuu caught it before any damage could be done.

"Your pitiful attempt was cute, but if you don't mind, I'm only an enter key away from Mobius' destruction, and I'm already behind schedule."Ryuu lifted his hand into the air. Amy watched as power collected in the palm of the dark hedgehog's hand. He was going to kill her! There was no way she could take on him, what was she thinking? She didn't have enough time to run nor would Tails to shut down the main computer. Amy closed her eyes and braced her self as Ryuu brought his hand toward her.

Amy heard the energy rushing for her, she could see the brightness it let off even through her lids, and could even feel the warmth it gave off. But as the feelings went away, the pain never came. Amy slowly opened her eyes. Shadow had taken the hit for her and was now kneeling hurt on the floor.

"Shadow!" Amy dropped next to her afflicted friend. He was not unconscious before, just tired. Shadow knew chaos blast would relieve him of his power, but he was counting on leaving some kind of impact on Ryuu. It all made sense now. Ryuu used the master emerald and Knuckles to take the power of all the chaos emeralds, but as an added bonus, he waited until Shadow wasted his energy with chaos blast. Now no one was strong enough to fight Ryuu, at least not with physical power. The only question left was why.

Shadow was brought out of his thoughts when he felt something across his face. It pained him to look up, but the reward was worth the effort. Amy was softly caressing Shadow face. Her eyes were watery. She placed her hand on his back to help steady him and concern was painted in all her features. Shadow allowed a very controlled smile to appear on his face. He couldn't let emotions get the best of him now, Ryuu needed to be stopped, but when Shadow looked up at the hedgehog, something about him was different.

_o_

The lab was silent that morning. Even though the days experiments had started, and the animals were crying out in pain, it all feel on deaf ears.

Ryuu laid motionless; tied down to a steel, cool test table. The testing next to him had some how gone wrong. The experiment next to him died. The same test was about to be performed on him. The experiment next to him, was his brother.

Both of them had grown up in the vast emptiness of the Ark, or at least as far back as they could remember. They had been used for varies trials to prefect a creature known to them as Project Shadow. Ryuu's older brother would endure the test first and if it failed, it would be tinkered with and tried on Ryuu. Going back and forth the scientists would perfect all the components for Project Shadow. Today was agelessness.

The scientists argued about how they didn't add enough of this or enough of that. They didn't care about him.

Taro always offered to go first; he would take the cruelest form of the new experiment. He would always have the worst side effects. He spared Ryuu the pain for over one-hundred-fifty experiments. Taro died for a prototype, and they weren't the only two animals researched on. Thirty others went through this same lifestyle just to be killed by G.U.N. soldiers.

o

Ryuu's whole being changed in front of Shadow. Somehow, in the act of saving Amy's life, Shadow triggered something in Ryuu. If Shadow wasn't so hurt he could have used this moment to his advantage. Amy then took note of Ryuu's odd behavior.

Ryuu shock himself out of his memories. The dark hedgehog turned and placed a finger on the enter key. He hesitated.

"I know you have you're reasons," Amy spoke up softly. Ryuu narrowed his eyes. "But please try to understand what you're doing. Your going to be killing everyone on the planet, including yourself, and for what?"

"What..?" Ryuu didn't face Amy, but he wasn't pressing the button either. Amy couldn't see it, but Ryuu's heart was beating a mile a minute. Deep down he knew this wasn't what he wanted, but he wasn't sure what he did want. Due to the experiments he had powers like the ultimate life form and even lived through the agelessness test. He now could prove he was better then the creation he had made by fulfilling the one mission the prototype and Project Shadow could not. But that wouldn't bring his brother back, nor would he feel any better about himself. He just wanted to end it...

Ryuu suddenly began to type things into the computer; he pressed the enter.

"NO!" Amy got to her feet. She could only hope Tails had finished sabotaging the main computer. Ryuu didn't move nor respond to Amy as the ground quickly shock. The movement almost knock Amy off her feet. "What have you done?!"

"A self destruct sequence," Both Shadow and Amy fixed their gaze on Ryuu. "You have less then ten minutes to get out of here and at least five miles away." Could she trust him? Was he trying to get them to leave so he could continue his plan without interruption? Was this really the time and place to be considering this?

"TAILS!" Amy started screaming. "Tails we have to get everyone out of here, Tails where are you!"

Shadow reluctantly got to his feet.

"Amy, get Tails to get you, Rouge, and Knuckles,"

"And Eggman." Ryuu added into Shadow speech.

"And Eggman out of here on the plane."

"What about you?"

"Just do it." Shadow's tone was harsher than he intended it to be, but he didn't want her to know about Sonic yet. He would get him safely out, and he knew Amy could handle herself.

Shadow and Amy agreed on a meeting place on the Floating Island, and though Amy was worried about Shadow she did as she was told.

When Amy found Tails he was already aware of the present danger.

"I've located Rouge with Ryuu's computer," Tails explained directing Amy back to the main lobby area. "She's behind the north wall. If you can get her to the plane I can get Knuckles and Eggman."

Amy nodded and was off. When Amy came to the lobby Ryuu already had the door open. He stood there watching Amy as she moved.

The pink hedgehog entered slowly a bit weary of Ryuu. Rouge looked rough.

"Come on Rouge, we have to go." Amy rushed to Rouge to help her up.

"Why are we running?"

"I'll explain later."

Ryuu hadn't moved from the door. He didn't seem in a hurry to escape. Might he be planning something?

"Why aren't you trying to leave?" Amy asked.

"You have less than five minutes, I suggest to hurry."

Amy didn't have the time to argue. Amy lead Rouge to the plane in time to see Tails leading Knuckles and Eggman out. Amy looked back at the base. Either Ryuu was planning evil or...

"Come on Amy get in the plane! We've got to go!" Amy followed Tails orders and the group was off.

"Must we save Eggman?" Knuckles asks slightly jokingly considering the doctor's cramped position in the trunk.

"Hold on guys," Tails called pushing the plane as fast as it would go. "We only have a minute to..."

Before Tails could finish his sentence, a large explosion threw the plane off course. The plane began to spin out of Tails' control. The rolls were sickening as the plane lost altitude.

"Bring it up, Tails!"

"I'm trying!"

The ground was becoming dangerously near when Tails got the plane level. The belly of the plane scrapped the tops of the trees and almost sent the air craft into a crash. With the worst behind them the group pulled up into the sky.

Amy breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back in her chair. She couldn't help but try to look back at the base. Did Shadow make it out? And why didn't he come with them? Amy felt the worry begin to build in her. She couldn't lose another friend. She shouldn't have to. Not Shadow, he had saved her life. She would have her answers soon enough. After Eggman was dropped off in a nearby ditch, they would arrive at the island. Amy would see Shadow, or the absents of him.

As the plane landed Amy made it a pont to be the first one out. She wasn't sure where to look for Shadow and decided it would be best to just walk about. Maybe she'd run into him.

"Tails?" Amy asked as the boy leaped from the plane. "I'm going to take a walk. If you see Shadow, tell him I've went that way." The pink hedgehog pointed off toward the Hanging Gardens. Tails was slightly confused. Amy wasn't one to walk off alone after a victory. Perhaps it was to reflect on Sonic. Tails nodded and watched Amy go.

Turning back around Tails was surprised to see Knuckles yelling up at a tree. Tails just shook his head. Some things were best left unexplained.

"You give me back the Master Emerald!"

"Why don't you come get it, Knuckles."

Despite her still rather weak condition, Rouge had managed to 'steal' the master emerald. Or at least Knuckles thought so. She had merely pushed the emerald out of the plane when Knuckles wasn't looking. But now that she had his attention, perhaps she could clear up a few matters with him.

"I'm not playing games Rouge!"

"Neither am I." Rouge spread her wings and floated to the ground. Once on the ground she gripped the tree for extra support. Rouge had a troubled look on her face. She still hurt from the battle. Rouge was also torn at the heart. Why had Knuckles allowed so much to happen to her just so he could continue to fight for his emerald? Had Rouge not been dragged half a mile she would have broke free and kicked Knuckles' butt herself. Why would he let that happen to her?! Did he not care at all about their relationship? Rouge knew Knuckles was a pretty dense echidna, but at the very least he should have treasured their friendship at that moment.

"Why'd you let Ryuu beat me half to death?"

"What? Stop it! Where's the master emerald?"

"Forget about that right now Knuckles! I'm asking you..." Rouge winched.

"Stop getting worked up, you're hurting yourself." Knuckles watched as Rouge lowered her head and muttered something under her breath. "I couldn't hear you." When the bat looked back up her eyes were glazed over and her temper had risen.

"Of course not Knuckles, you're too worried about the master emerald." Rouge's voice was audibly strained. Rouge tried to lower herself to sit, she really wasn't in any condition to be contending with anyone. "The emeralds behind the plane Knuckles," Rouge rested her head against the tree and shut her eyes. "I don't care any more." If he didn't care about her, why should she waste her time caring for him.

The bat heaved a sigh when she suddenly felt herself being picked up bridal style. She opened her eyes as Knuckles was shifting her weight in his arms.

"What are you doing?"

"Taking you some place a bit more comfortable." Knuckles began walking. Rouge never took note to where they were heading, but rather what they were leaving behind.

"What about the master emerald?" Rouge asked glancing back.

"As long as it's on the island it'll fine."

Rouge blinked in amazement. He was...for her...

Rouge smiled. It wasn't exactly what she wanted, but it was getting closer. Rouge relaxed a bit and leaned on Knuckles chest. Yes, it was getting a lot closer.

Tails had long since stoped watching the couple as he examined the underside of his plane. It hadn't taken on any heavy damage, but it would need repair before any other expeditions were taken. Tails climbed out from under the plane and into the cockpit. Hopefully none of his equipment had been broken during the...

A sudden wind blew pass the fox; and a groan came from behind. Tails turned around to the back of the plane.

_o_

The Hanging Gardens must have been the most beautiful place in the world, especially after having tread through the snow for hours. Angel Island was a beautiful place in general. The birds were always singing, the fruit was always ripe and ready to eat, and the island was miles away from the city's hustle and bustle. Amy was carried away by the smells of the flowers on the brisk cool breeze. It was almost heavenly.

"You must be in heaven by now Sonic," Amy spoke softly. "So why do I miss you so much." Amy's eyes were dry, but she was still crying inside. "I love you Sonic, I should be happy for you."

Amy knelt in a small patch of flowers and began picking them for a bouquet. She wanted to remember Sonic. He never did get a proper funeral or a last word.

"You always loved to run, especially from me," A weak laugh. "You never said you loved me, yet somehow I knew. I knew we'd be together." Amy sniffed back a tear. "I guess I was wrong, Sonic."

Amy's vision became bleared. The tears in her eyes were making it impossible to see. Still she didn't want to cry. She was so tired of crying; wanting something she could not have. Something she never had. She never was able to have Sonic; he always ran from her or acted strange around her. Only recently had he taken any romantic interest in her, but now it was too late.

"Does anyone know," Amy cried to the tree and the world around her; holding back the urge to weep. "Do you know how it feels to lose something you never had?!"

Amy shut her eyes tight. She continued her internal fight with her eyes. Why did this have to hurt so much? The rustling of the leaves caught Amy's attention. Someone was coming. Amy quickly straighten her quills and sniffed.

Shadow stepped out in front of Amy. Another breeze swept pass the two in silence. Shadow stood, Amy sat. They didn't move for a beat as the garden life went on without them. Shadow had no distinguishable expression on his face. He was in a serious mood, but there was something about him that seemed less threatening and more placid. As Amy blinked, the long persistent tears final escaped her eyes.

"Shadow," Her words were soft, but happy. "You're okay." She knew he could tell she had been thinking about Sonic. She couldn't help it. The black hedgehog got on one knee; eye level with Amy. He was genuinely concerned for her, with a bit of worry in his featured.

As gently as he could, Shadow wiped Amy's tears with his knuckle. After which he caressed the side of her face. Amy was taken back by his actions, and the pleasant smiled that formed on his face. His behavior was all too foreign for her.

Amy pulled back from Shadow and looked away. He was making her feel...so different. Her face was hot, she could tell she was blushing.

"For the longest time I cried about Maria's death," Amy looked back at Shadow. "It's been years and I still hurt when I think about what happened to her." She was surprised he was telling her this. Shadow never talked about Maria, not with anyone. The black hedgehog avoided Amy's eye contact as he told his story. "I haven't really lived or moved on, til now," Pause. "I know Sonic was special to you and there is no one else in this world that can replace him to you. And I'm not wanting to do that." Shadow rose to his feet and watched Amy.

The girl slowly began to raise to meet Shadow. The weird feeling she had just got stronger. Shadow wasn't acting the way he had before. There was something about him that had changed. Amy stared into the crimson eyes that watched her so intently. She could see it there. Fear. Shadow was afraid of something, and by the way he was speaking, it was her.

Shadow placed his hands on Amy's shoulders. He was trying to find words...a way to explain...

How could he tell her how he felt? What if she wasn't ready for him to confess this? What if he was rejected? What about Sonic?

Shadow took a deep breath; he wasn't going to let fear control him. He wanted to know, and he wanted her to know, but still the words wouldn't come. He knew that this moment was fragile. The wrong word, the wrong motion could push her away forever. She was just morning Sonic, and he had just fallen in love. Amy probably doesn't even know he harbors feelings for her and is thinking that he is just trying to make her feel better. But he loved her...

Amy wasn't sure what was going through Shadow's mind, but hers was beginning to hurt. Sonic was special. Amy's emotions soon got the best of her and she moved in to hug Shadow. She cried into him as she had days before. Shadow wrapped his arms around Amy and helped support her as she did so; all the while contemplating whether or not he should tell her about Sonic. After a few minutes Amy's tears subsided, but the hug continued. Shadow found himself suppressing a purr that was trying to surface. He was beginning to feel too comfortable holding her. Amy also didn't mind being this close to Shadow; it felt good to be next to him.

Shadow removed a hand from Amy's back and tilted her head up. Slowly he made his way to kiss her. He couldn't find the words, but he had the action. He stopped just as his lips were about to touch hers. He didn't want to violate Amy by forcing this kiss, he wanted her to close the gap between them.

Amy could feel Shadow's breath and sense his closeness. In a way she wanted to kiss him. She wanted to be swept away in a dreamy fantasy with someone she had grown to love. But another side of her kept remaindering her of Sonic. It screamed for her attention.

_o_

_o_

_o_

Amy pushed Shadow away.

"No Shadow," She didn't yell. She was direct and firm. "I don't love you."

Shadow's breathing became heavier. Though he didn't show it too much on the outside, Amy could tell Shadow was torn inside. But she couldn't. She couldn't...The tears fought their way back up. She didn't want Shadow, she wants Sonic. She wants...

"Please Shadow, you've been so kind to me these past few days. I appreciate everything you've done for me, and I do feel strongly about you, but I...I"

"What." His response came out harsher than he intended, but he couldn't help it. "I'm not asking you to love me now Amy, just to..." Shadow thought out what he wanted to say. He knew he couldn't convince her to love him, nor would he want to. But the fact that she had 'feelings' proved that she might want to, she's still morning. But she wouldn't be for long. Once she found out Sonic was alive, she'd all but forget about him. She'd have her Sonic, why substitute that for Shadow.

The black hedgehog came to Amy and took one of her hands in his. With his free hand he reached into his quills and pulled something out that he placed in her hand. He then quickly grabbed her other hand and covered the object.

"I want you to have this."

Amy tried to look at the thing in her hands, but Shadow cupped his hands around hers forcing them shut.

"Thank you for everything you've done for me, Amy. You should go find Tails now." Shadow placed a small kiss on Amy's forehead before turning and skating off.

"Shadow!"

He didn't stop, he didn't look back.

Amy put her attention on the object. It was a small glass rose, with red tipped petals. It wasn't perfectly made, but it was the most beautiful present she could have received.

"What was I thinking?" Amy asked herself. "God please don't let me have hurt Shadow too much." She prayed. Had she really done the right thing? Sonic was dead. Shadow had been so loving to her, kinder than Sonic ever was. And yet, it didn't feel right to be with him. Or was it because she was scared? Scared she'd have to deal with heartbreak again. But she did love Sonic, and if he were here...

Just then Amy could here the sound of foot falls. Some one else was coming.

"Amy?!" The voice belonged to Tails, she knew it did. Amy very carefully placed the glass rose in her pocket and then headed for Tails. Finally she saw him. He was so excited. Tears of joy ran down his face; a smile from ear to ear.

"Amy, we found Sonic! He's alive!"

Fin

Jan. 6, 2007


End file.
